Contact
by KE12
Summary: AU: Humanity failed to conquer FTL, having no Eezo in Sol, but they did manage to overcome many other technologies which have allowed them to become the masters of their solar system, but what happens when the Citadel Council stumble across them in the year 3517AD? The Citadel wants their technology, and Humanity wants out of Sol, but can a deal be struck? Heavy focus on FC aspects
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, enjoy!**

3517AD

Some would say Humanity has reached its peak, most diseases have been cured, with only the very rare, or very new not being remedied, world hunger has been long solved with mass farming on once barren landscapes and artificial growth of meat products in labs. Worldwide enforced education programs mean there is now a 100% literacy rate, pollution is at an all-time low, and the economy has been entirely reformatted to now run off energy, instead of easily mined gold.

Humanity could be said to be in her golden age after the 3 world wars that scarred the 20th and 21st century, and the War of Sol that rocked the solar system in the 29th century. Despite claims of being in a golden age, there is a single problem that seems to be beyond Human reach. Faster Than Light, FTL, has so far escaped Human grasp, no matter the funding, resources or time thrown at the problem, the solution for affordable and safe FTL has been ever elusive.

One known method of FTL, using an element dubbed as 'Element Zero', has long been proven to be unfeasible. The element has not been found in nature, preventing its mining, and making enough of the element is out of the question due to the extreme resources required to produce the necessary quantities. The truth is, people would rather make their own small part of the galaxy a more comfortable home then spend so many resources on something which will probably provide little back. The problems with Element Zero are so significant that no one has even tried to use it for FTL.

But, this has not constricted Humanity to Earth, merely to Sol, the solar system they live in. People are living on Mars, Venus and Mercury, then some have taken to calling gigantic ringworlds above the Earth, Mars and Venus their home. In the far depths of the solar system past Jupiter lives another set of people who call themselves the Belters, these people live in large habitats n orbit of various worlds, but their populations are relatively low.

Being restricted to Sol has forced Humanity to learn how to terraform planets instead of merely casting them aside to find another, most notably Mars, and being confined to Sol has had other unintended yet positive consequences. Some technologies have flourished, with the economy not trying to support an expansion outside of Sol it has left more time and supplies to look at other things that could improve the ever-smaller worlds they live on. Examples being AI and computing developed on Earth are some of the most advanced in the galaxy, and food production technologies are far beyond any other species capabilities. Further, because Humanity has so few words, planetary defences have been developed that unleash hells fury like no other.

By most standards, Earth is considered an impenetrable fortress, the War of Sol almost cost the world, so all efforts were made to ensure its defences are without question. In truth, humans wanted her safe, and so they spared no effort to make it so; no other planet can claim to be their place of origin, and it provides most of Humanities food. If Earth fell, despite all their advances, Humanity would still struggle. Would they perish? Not at all, but most would miss the blue orb.

While Earth is heavily defended, the truth is Humanity as a whole lacks an arsenal of war vessels. Each planet in Sol can only claim to have a small armoury of high tech stealth vessels and a few old but by no means unsophisticated Planetary Assault Craft, commonly known as PAC's. With Sol being at peace for over 700 years, and planetary defences that could eliminate any fleet of old, most do not really see the need for a flotilla of war machines.

Ultimately, while Humanity may be restricted to Sol, it could be strongly argued it has done the civilisation a great good, allowing them to advance to a suitable stage prior to any FTL discovery.

/.../

Unknown space - Citadel Vessel Avian

Councilor Tevos paces back and forth on the bridge of the Avian, she had previously been advised by the Asari republics not to embark on this mission, for fears of her safety, but she ignored them. She remembers telling the Republic Council that the discovery was just too great to pass up, but now, she regrets ever leaving the safety of the Citadel. "Corvinus," She says to the Turian Captain of her vessel, "How long till the Turian reinforcements arrive?"

The Turian watches her pace back and forth with his small black eyes that are a signature of his race before saying, "18 hours 15, no sooner." It is almost the same answer as the last time she asked, minus 5 minutes, but the Turian captain does not voice this frustration. Tevos is one of his ultimate bosses, so it is not his place to vent with her.

The Asari blinks as she continues to pace, "And how long till the pirates catch us?"

"At best, 16 hours 30." Corvinus replies respectfully before adding, "And that is assuming our damaged engines continue to operate with the same efficiency as per. We will not survive another encounter."

Tevos blinks, not knowing how the Turian can sound so calm with the situation. Eventually, she asks, "How long will it take to arrive at the Relay?"

Corvinus flares his mandibles a little, "We can arrive at the uncharted Relay in 14 hours. I must advise you that we will need to activate it."

"I know of the implications." Tevos snaps, knowing it will be the first Relay opened in a thousand years or so which will result in a full-blown investigation that could lead many to lose their jobs, or heads even in the case of the Turians. "But we can not let the pirates get their hands on our cargo, the results of which will have devastating consequences throughout the galaxy. Corvinus, activate the Relay and proceed through."

There is a silence in the room as the various officers silently question the decision, and eventually, Corvinus says, "As you wish. Helmsman, take us to the uncharted Relay, maximum sustainable velocity. Science, find the protocols for Relay activation."

"As you command," The Turian helmsman says, repeating the famous mantra of a Turian soldier as he turns the ship towards the uncharted Relay.

Arriving at the Relay, Tevos gives it a hard look, the Relay looks just like any other powered down Relay, it is frosted over and carries an intimidating appearance, quietly informing all who see it of the power it holds within. Nodding to the science officer, she says, "Initiate it."

Corvinus quickly speaks up to add, "And release a probe to inform the Turian peacekeeping fleet inbound where we have gone." If the Turians come across the newly powered Relay, they are unlikely to just storm through like headless varren, unless they have reasonable cause to enter uncharted space. By the time the Relay is powered up and ready for use, the Pirates are just a mere half-hour behind the citadel vessel and are closing in fast.

/../

United Nations Space Command (UNSC)- Sol

A man in a dark navy blue uniform walks briskly into a room, people he passes pay respect to him, but he is not interested in returning their salutes, he has bigger fish to fry at the moment. Arriving at a table in the centre of the room, he says, "What is the situation?"

A slim man with greying hair begins to speak, "Half an hour ago, Charon was a moon around Pluto, now..." The man brings an image up on a screen at the bottom of the table, "This is an image from a mapping satellite we had in orbit of Charon." Instead of barren rock, there is a vast construct surrounded by some broken rocks. Just before the military man can ask a question the older man goes on to say, "Thankfully, with Charon being so far away from the sun resulting in little to no natural light arriving at the moon, there aren't any settlements we need to worry about."

"Good," The decorated man replies before pointing to the unknown object, "Next question, where did it come from?"

The scientist quickly plays a video, showing the moon break apart as the unknown object begins to power up. The General clenches his jaw at the sight, hating what this potentially means. "Is our satellite still orbiting what was left of Charon?"

The scientist yet again nods, "The satellite has QEC installed, allowing for live transmission. Amazingly we have also discovered this device has an unusual mass allowing our satellite to maintain an orbit, despite Charon having mostly drifted..." As the man speaks the rings on the construct, begin to spin so fast that they become a blur, and a second or so later a second much smaller construct appears next to the first construct. This second construct seems to be damaged and is venting something.

The General has seen enough and raises a hand to his ear, "Lucias, get me the Chief of General Staff," He says with a stern voice that only years of being in the military have allowed him to perfect, after a moment a voice greets him and he says, "I must advise we activate condition Alpha 1 as of this second."

/.../

Avian

The moment the vessel drops out of the relay corridor Corvinus says, "Sensors, report!"

The sensor subject matter expert takes a moment to collect information his various sensors have made before stating, "System has 9 Planets, no life signs... wait, cancel last, we have a satellite around the Relay."

Corvinus turns to his sensors expert, "On screen!" This is what he feared would happen.

The satellite that is projected onto the screen is small and white, it has no visible satellite antenna or FTL drive, meaning whoever created this device will probably have to come back to retrieve the information from it. Corvinus takes a second before saying, "Leave it, we can collect it for study later."

The Avian spends a further few minutes collecting information on the new and uncharted solar system before the sensor expert says "I don't like this," The Salarian taps a few keys in frustration before saying, "This space is quiet, real quiet, too quiet."

Tevos turns to the expert, "How do you mean?" She can feel her skin become ever so slightly statically charged, a natural Asari response akin to human hairs standing on end. This response allows Asari to power their biotics ever so slightly quicker than without.

"Well," The sensor expert begins to explain. "99% of planets emit or reflect a natural signal that we can detect, yet none of the inner planets here are emitting a signal, and their gravity wells are for the better part dubious as if they were being masked. I would dare say, if we were not in the system and with the most modern sensors, these planets would be undetectable."

"Which planet is most masked?" Asks Tevos with a raised brow.

"3rd one in." The sensor expert says, "Almost entirely undetectable, even its light emissions are distorted."

Tevos thinks heavily before saying, "Take us to the third planet."

Corvinus flares his mandibles again; he does not like this at all, "If there is a new civilisation there, which is likely due to the fact we just found their satellite, then is this the wisest decision Councillor? We still have a hostile tail."

Tevos swallows before blinking, "Yes, the Hanar have infamously bad sensors, and if whoever lives on that planet has something that can hide a world, it sure as Athame it can hide a ship." She takes a moment before adding, "And if they do find us, then with any hope a new civilisation will make our tail question their decision to attack us, and if all else fails, we can beg for help or land."

Corvinus does not agree with the Asari's logic, but who is he to argue with the upper echelons?

/.../

Unfortunately for Tevos, the Hanar appear quicker than expected and are now only 10 minutes behind them, and with the Avians damaged engines, the aquatic beings are more than likely to catch up soon. Fortunately, the alien world is no more than 13 minutes from their current location.

After 8 minutes of pushing the Avians engines to their limits, the 3rd planet is now a small blue orb, and sensors can detect some landmass, but still nothing much else, which means this world must have cloaking technology around it of some sort, and any civilisation that can cloak a world is powerful in Tevos's mind.

"Captain, detecting an energy surge, Hanar are firing."

"Are they mad?" Queries Tevos as the helmsman moves the Avian to the side and the Hanar's superheated tungsten round passes them without causing any damage. This pattern repeats until they are well within the visual range of the alien world, and at this distance, the enormous ringworld above the planet can be seen, and the megacities on Earth are visible.

"Another shot incoming," Someone says.

So far it has taken around 20 seconds for the shots to catch the Avian, which is more than ample time to manoeuvre out of the way, but someone quickly adds, "Projectile trajectory calculated, shot will hit into an ocean within 10km of a city on the planet."

The Captain gives Tevos a quick sorry glance before turning to his helmsman, "Put us in the way of that shot."

"As you command," The Turian helmsman says quietly before doing as asked, knowing that this action will ultimately kill many of his fellow crewmen.

When the shot impacts on the Avian its effects are felt immediately, generators onboard the vessel blow, engines splutter out of life, artificial gravity fails, primary lights fail and atmosphere vents from various locations where the hull has warped, torn and fractured. The worst damage is to the left aft section, which has mostly been removed and cavitated. The bridge, being at the ships forward section, remains unscathed, other than the issues as mentioned earlier regarding lighting and gravity. The Avian, however, still has some of its batteries and supercapacitors, which means some systems are still working, such as sensors and emergency lighting, it is not much, but still something.

/.../

UNSC

The General blows out a sigh of relief as he witnesses the first alien vessel move into the way of the shot, preventing it from reaching Earth and testing her mostly untested planetary shielding.

"General," A voice belonging to the President fills the air, "You have my and our people's blessing." The President audibly breathes out, before going on, "Had that hit and our shields fell I have no doubt Bejing would be in serious trouble right now, unleash our wrath how you best see fit."

Till this point, the President had been happy to watch in order to learn everything he could. The General nods, he too feels relieved, not only for the lives saved but for the more selfish reason being that he has good friends in Beijing. Looking to the roof, the General speaks aloud, "Ultron, eliminate hostile ships. Authorisation code Papa, Guinea, Lema, six, nine, Bravo, Zulu two."

An automated sounding voice confirms the authorisation code, and shortly the General is watching as six stealth defence platforms power their weapons and an artificial intelligence calculates weapon trajectories.

/.../

CV Avian

"Captain," The sensor expert speaks as he looks at his console. "Detecting six power surges from the planets orbit." Before the expert could add any more information six beams of burning hot white light pass the Avian and obliterate the Hanar vessels. "It was a weapon, all Hanar vessels destroyed!"

"Just like that?" Asks the Captain who is sitting in the Captain's chair, a seatbelt holding him down, "Do we have a recording?" Most onboard are trained to operate their vessels with a loss of gravity, so the Avians crew are not too affected by its loss.

"Putting it on screen now." A second later and the main view screen is displaying six vessels being consumed by what can only be described as a beam of either white-hot plasma, or dare Corvinus to say it, energy.

"Goddess," Tevos says as she tries to keep herself grounded, but the task is proving to be harder than she would like, it has been too long since she experienced zero gravity in a spinning ship. "What was that?"

The Turian flares his mandibles a little and then says, "Not good news. Do we have comms?"

"No." A communications officer says. "Primary and secondary transmitters were torn off by debris from the earlier impact."

The Turian captain releases a low growl, making a sound only Turians can make, showing his frustration at their current situation, "Then once we have collected survivors make that our top priority. I also want a message passed through any shipwide terminals that are still working, inform our crew we are being watched and will potentially have unknown visitors; we are to adopt a non-hostile stance towards them. They are to operate under section commanders until further notice."

"As you command."

/.../

UNSC - 1 hour later

"The ship is spinning in an uncontrolled manner, it is dead in the water." A high ranking figure says with a slam of his hand, "We should take it into our possession now before it can provide resistance." The whole topic of what to do with the damaged alien vessel has caused some heated arguments.

"And risk angering a second species or group?" The President says with some concern, "I think not, and that is not to mention that this ship deliberately moved into the path of the projectile that was heading for our home. I will not have our people, our species, be hostile to people that will put their neck on the line for a civilisation they do not know or have relations with."

There is a quiet in the room until the President speaks again, "I want a rescue mission sent in ASAP. Marines of the highest calibre only, soft posture. Cerberus, prepare our people for any hostilities, I will make sure you have whatever resources you deem fit."

A general nods her head before leaving the room to make the necessary arrangements.

/.../

Avian - 2 hours 30 later.

Captain Corvinus looks around the battered medical bay; there are more bodies covered in thin black sheets than those receiving medical aid. The annoying thing is that because his crew have been working now for over 36 hours straight with little to no rest in order to keep the ship moving, there is a fair share of people here with injuries caused by mistakes through tiredness. With a frustrated growl, he turns to leave the room, but before he can, a voice stops him, "Captain, we have a situation. We have an unidentified ship outside."

"On my way," The Captain says. "Where did it come from?" He didn't really need to ask this question, he already knew the answer. There is a moment of silence till the man on the other side of the radio says, "It just appeared next to us."

/.../

UNSC Hawkings

Shepard stifles a laugh as she watches her cohort play a prank on a comrade that has fallen asleep, that being to see how much they can draw on his face. "Alright, jarheads and foreheads." A voice crackles over the ship's intercom, taking a light jab at the marines, "As expected our docks are incompatible, so you're going to be doing some good old EVA'ing..."

The marine that was asleep awakens with the voice and immediately begins to spit paper from his mouth that was wide open catching flies, earning a chuckle all around, no one tells him of the drawings. "... So suit up and be ready to move in 5."

As the marine that was asleep grumbles, Shepard begins to do the final checks of her armour and weapons. "Hey, Shepard," One of the marines says as he does his own checks, "Is your brother always so miserable?" This question gains the attention of most in the room.

Shepard doesn't look up as she replies, "He's Space Force and actually has to do something that isn't a woman for a change, so of course he will be miserable." Those in the Space Force are well known for their fancy lifestyles, and they often clash with the 3 other forces because of it.

"Aww yeah," One of the marines says, "How could I forget? Bloody Spacey."

Soon the small contingency of 15 marines are at the airlock and are exposed to the vast emptiness that is space, "Alrighty," Shepard says to her men through comms as the point man unlocks his mag boots and enters the harsh love of space, "Remember, the president is watching and..."

Leonid Shepard interrupts, speaking from the bridge of the Hawkings, "To keep it in your pants. We know what you marines are like if it has a pulse and is warm..."

Lidochka Shepard rolls her eyes before saying, "Shouldn't you spacey's be more interested in aliens, and wasn't it someone in the Space Force who was recently caught..."

"...Yeah yeah, just get your job done."

"Was it a goat or a sheep?" Someone laughs, "Now what were you saying, boss?"

"A goat. Now, in essence, we're here to make friends, as much as we can make friends with aliens, so no shooting blind or on sight like usual... Vega."

"Hey," The hulking man replies as he looks up from his own checks, "My room clearance is top-notch. Even says so in my AAR." AAR is his annual appraisal report.

Shepard lands on the alien vessel through an exposed tear in the ship's hull before responding, "Then how come you've been shot three times doing that very job? 1 Section, all-around defence."

As 1 sec secure the 'landing' site, Vega replies, "When you have this much muscle, something is bound to hit every now and then. And if you're not happy with my means, why did you write the opposite in my AAR?"

Another voice pipes in, "James, fat isn't a muscle, and she will have written so because we aren't typically used for soft cuddly missions like this. Pirates are rarely shown any love."

"Hey Ash, that's just downright mean."

Shepard rolls her eyes yet again as she catches a box that is passed to her, the box is filled with supplies and equipment for rescuing stranded personnel in space. With the landing zone secured and all supplies onboard the marines make their way towards a door that has been sealed against the vacuum of space, "Alright, you know the drill."

First, a sensor is placed on the door, and since an atmosphere is detected in the next room an atmosphere shield is then placed in front of the door, which will allow solid bodies to pass through but contain gasses such as those found in an atmosphere. Next, a plasma torch that can operate in zero atmospheric conditions cuts through the door, and finally, James uses his hulking mass and exoskeleton to force the door open.

Getting inside of the room a marine takes an atmosphere reading, "Hey boss, these readings are either wrong, or this is breathable, I mean its a little heavy on the oxygen, but it's well within safety limits. Pressure is good too, 1015.25 mbar."

Shepard looks around her guys before nodding, "Then orders from the top is soft posture guys." After saying this, each marines armour reacts, and their helmets collapse down their necks. It is a hazardous move considering they do not know who these aliens are or can possibly predict how they will react to their presence as they do not know their temperament.

"You know," Someone says as the Marines move through the room to the next door, "I was thinking, what we are doing right now, like on this ship, it's incredibly stupid. Something only a politician would think is a good idea stupid."

"Oh yeah?" Asks Shepard, looking for more information.

"Yeah, like when we run into ET, what are we going to say..." The marine clears his throat for the next word, "...'WAZZAA?' and wave our arms like a tit? We know none of their language, customs, ways, hell, we don't even know what they look like. Us shaking hands to them could be us waving our dong in one hand while flipping the bird with the other, so this plan from up top, it's stupid."

"We are marines," Shepard shrugs as she observes the room around her, "The Jarheads and the foreheads, we excel at the stupid, so we will make something up when it comes to it; besides, I think the egg heads have given us something, so we don't need to speak."

"Rooooogger that." The man replies, naturally sceptical of the egg heads plan.

There is a crackle over the radio before a General speaks in their earpieces, sounding rather irate. "Get a grip. The President is listening to everything you are saying."

There is a moment of silence till one of the marines says, "Well, there goes my skiing trip." This causes a chuckle among the marines, with everyone knowing it means their request for leave is likely to be denied because of this and duties assigned instead, not that any of them expect to have leave approved with everything going on.

/.../

In the next room over, Corvinus looks at a monitor that displays the aliens in the adjacent room, the aliens are heavily armoured and heavily armed, and from his time as a foot soldier, he can tell that they know what they are doing, and are well versed in it. They also look like they are ready to deliver punishment, but the Captain can also tell they are here for a different purpose just from their stance and demeanour, but he does not kid himself that they wouldn't fight with ferocity if needed to.

With a deep breath, he turns to a sailor who is guarding the nearby door that will open to reveal the aliens, the door needs hand-cranked open due to the lack of power. "Open it," He commands. This task proves to be harder than anticipated due to the lack of gravity and the ship's spin.

As the doors slowly open the Captain can see the aliens react and move into more appropriate cover, but he does not react, he uses his spine that the Turian army blessed him with to suppress any reactions. After a moment for the aliens to accept their new position the Captain walks through the door and looks around, so far so good, he thinks, having not been shot.

After a few seconds, one of the aliens moves out of cover and stands in the middle of the corridor, it looks him up and down before moving back slowly to a box the aliens dragged in and opening it. The alien then takes a small device out and places it against a wall, creating a blue barrier against the wall. The alien then opens the door it used to enter the room, showing a similar barrier and its capability to hold an atmosphere in.

The alien then picks up an identical object and slowly approaches Corvinus, holding the item out towards him while pointing to a small button. Corvinus slowly accepts the item before handing it to an aide behind him with the instruction to take it and test it.

Next, the alien takes a display pad out of the box and plays a video which shows the Avian being tugged to the ringworld above the nearby planet, followed by a second video showing the Avians crew moving onto the UNSC Hawkings, and a third video showing the Avian left alone with the box of goodies the marines brought onboard. The alien then holds the pad out, the three options displayed on it, in wait.

Corvinus quickly realises what the alien is offering and does some quick thinking, the first option would be preferable, but the Avian is severely damaged, so he does not know if the ship will survive the trip. The second option is a possibility, the aliens seem to want to help and haven't shot him or his people thus far. The third option is an almost no go; the ship won't survive too long on its own, its core could rupture at any moment killing all on board, and who knows if the Turian peacekeeping mission will arrive promptly, never mind go through the newly opened Relay. Indeed, Corvinus realises that he is at this species mercy.

Corvinus thinks through his options a few times, in order to make sure that he is about to pick the right one before pressing the second option on the screen.

/.../

As the aliens prepare a method to transport his people onto their vessel Corvinus takes his executive officer aside, "Are all computers wiped?" He had given this tasking the moment he found out that the aliens were boarding his vessel.

Rigina, the executive officer blinks, "The computer core is scrambled. I've also ensured any documents are shredded." At this very moment in time, if no help from the council arrives and they somehow managed to repair their ship, the Turians would never be able to find their way back home.

"Good work," Corvinus says before adding. "What about the device?"

"It's hidden, and unless these aliens know what they are looking for, they will miss it."

/.../

30 mins later

Corvinus looks among his 27 crewmen that are now sitting on an alien vessel in what looks like a small cargo bay. Some of his Turians have brought weapons with them, but the aliens didn't stop them, either for lack of care, or because they didn't know what they were, but Corvinus doubts the latter. The aliens are heavily armed and are bound to know what a firearm looks like, so that means either the aliens have allowed them to keep their weapons out of respect, to prevent any issues, or because they pose no threat to their rescuers, and he hopes it is the former of the three options. Sitting down next to a sailor a small distance away from the Councillor he says, "Tevos, my crew know not to address you as a superior, meaning, unless you give yourself away, these aliens will not discover your true identity."

Tevos looks away as she sees two of their rescuers grab each other by the shoulders, make some sort of comment to one another and then both laugh, or so Tevos presumes. "What do you think of them, Captain?"

Corvinus clicks his talons a little before saying, "We detected no element zero on their vessels or a method of FTL, yet they have weapons that can obliterate ships and cloaking technology that can hide worlds and vessels. They are dangerous and are no strangers to war by any means. But I know what you are asking yourself, are they hostile and Krogan like? I don't think so, Krogan wouldn't have rescued us, instead, they would have killed all seven ships, and they wouldn't use such a structured hierarchy like these seem to do."

"Then it is of my opinion we should establish proper relations, we need to warn them of the peacekeeping fleet inbound, or I fear we may be one peacekeeping fleet down after today."

Corvinus flares his mandibles in agreement, "Yes, but doing so will be tricky, these people do not speak a known language." Because First Contact is so rare, captains in the Turian Navy will only ever receive one lesson on how to proceed with first contact, and it usually follows a night of heavy drinking, meaning it is a lesson most forget.

"You have your omni-tool, yes?" Tevos asks, being more rehearsed in how to deal with first contact situations, having studies all previous first contacts in-depth to assume her current role.

"I do."

"Then we can attempt writing in the Prothean language and see if we can use that as a basis. With any hope, these aliens will have encountered Prothean tech and have a baseline understanding of their language."

"Then we will try it," Corvinus says, "But I do not speak Prothean, nor any of my crew. Will any of the experts?"

Tevos glances over a few of the experts before picking one out, "Matriarch T'soni was our lead Prothean expert on the expedition, she will be your best bet."

Corvinus gives it a few minutes before standing from his seat and approaching the ancient Asari, "Matriarch," He says, "I need you to come with me."

The T'soni accepts the order after pacifying her own guard and approaches the lead alien marine with a greenish mane, and when stood in front of it, Corvinus says to Benezzia, "Write on your omni-tool something in Prothean, anything simple to establish if it understands the language."

Benezzia takes a few moments before tapping out 'The sky blue.' Corvinus then hands the omni-tool to Shepard.

/.../

Shepard frowns as she accepts the alien's computer, and then she looks to what is typed and her stomach drops, recognising the symbols on the datapad. After swallowing slowly, she raises a hand to her ear and says, "Zero, you reading this?" She fears these Aliens are Protheans.

"We can confirm, but this is good news One Zero Alpha, wait out for a data package."

After around 30 seconds Shepard receives a data-package, downloaded straight into the nano-bot AI in her brain, and just like that, she can read and speak Prothean, the technology that allows her to do this is only in the military domain and is very new. Clearing her throat, she looks to the blue alien, "Yes, the sky is blue, so are the oceans. Do you understand?"

/.../

Corvinus turns to Benezzia immediately after the alien speaks, but Benezzia is a little lost, "She said something about blue, sky and ocean, I do not recognise the other words." Despite knowing how to write in Prothean, very few audio samples have ever been found, meaning the Citadel species do not know what Prothean sounded like. "But they are obviously acquainted with the language."

"Could they have found some advanced Prothean Stash?" Asks Corvinus since every other known galactic species have discovered Prothean cash's in their home solar system, and this species is advanced.

"Must have," Benezzia concludes, "But if they can speak Prothean so proficiently, why isn't more of their tech-based on Prothean design?" Meaning element zero tech.

Corvinus gives the Turian equivalent of a shrug before telling her, "We can worry about that sometime later. Right now I need you to tell her we need to speak, urgently."

Benezzia nods before beginning to write again on her datapad. Her sentences are not too well-formed, because despite knowing the language, they rarely come across anything that is not a schematic or engineering paper, meaning getting a full grasp of the language and how it is structured is difficult. Most of the technology developed from the beacons have entirely been off the schematics found on them.

/.../

Shepard looks down to the datapad again and speaks the words, "Need speak, time important." The commander nods before holding a hand out for the aliens writing device as she is not sure the alien can speak the language, only write in it.

After some hesitation from the alien Shepard gets the device and begins to type, "Then speak." She also corrects the previous sentence so it reads, 'Need to speak, time is of the utmost importance.' Then she hands the device back.

Benezzia quickly takes the omni-tool and reads what is written before saying, "Goddess, she has corrected my previous sentence using what I assume to be conjunctions and prepositions. This species knows the language well. She also says 'then speak'."

Corvinus suppresses a concerned growl before telling her, "Tell her a friendly fleet is inbound. Time unknown but soon."

Benezzia takes a moment to consider what she will say before blinking and typing, 'Friendship find here, tall number, day, tomorrow.'

Shepard considers the text before taking the device back and typing, 'Your friends or your enemies?'

Benezzia squints at her device before realising what is being said, she speaks to Corvinus as she types, 'I friends.' and says, "She wants clarification as to if the fleet is ours or the Hanar's."

After getting the omni-tool back Shepard reads it, types 'Acknowledged' and then raises a hand to her ear, and says in her native tongue, "Zero, the aliens seem to be trying to tell me they have friendlies inbound. Maybe in a day or two. For further details, wait out."

There is a moment till a voice tells her, "Roger that One Zero Alpha. Out."

Shepard then looks to the alien and gestures for the omni-tool, and upon receiving it she writes, 'How many friends?'

Benezzia reads it aloud, prompting Corvinus to say, "Tell her 30 ships, one dreadnought."

Typically the Turian would not reveal this information to keep operation security, but considering these people have very likely saved his peoples lives, and have some sort of directed energy weapon in orbit of their planet, he will spare some information. He is also willing to share as it can help make positive relations between his own and this new species.

Getting the datapad back, Shepard reads, "30. 1 ship tall, tall guns, much armour."

Shepard nods in partial understanding, knowing it to mean that there will be 30 normal ships and one larger full-blown warship, or 29 normal ships and one full-blown warship. Before she can reply a voice comes over the ship's intercom, "Guests and foreheads, we are about to dock with SB1. Shepard, some bigwigs are waiting for you at the dock." SB1 stands for Star Base 1 and is what the International Space Station was before the military consumed it and developed it into a zero-gravity training wing and then a military space dock. Today it has very little left of the original ISS other than a small compartment that acts as a memorial for all those who served and died on missions to the ISS.

Getting the omni-tool back, Shepard quickly writes, 'Prepare to move.' Before pulling herself onto her feet and making her way to the airlock. At the airlock, she finds her brother awaiting her, "So, thoughts?" She asks him.

"Trust you to find the green space babes of the galaxy."

"Really?" Lidochka states, "We find aliens, and the first thing you think of is getting laid? Your such a spacey its not even funny anymore."

As the airlock hisses open the Leonid Shepard asks her, "So your not even a little bit interested?"

With a shake of her head Lidochka Shepard moves down the dock to stop in front of a general. After whacking up a crisp salute and receiving a one back, the General asks her, "You have established comms?"

Shepard nods, "Text only, they can write Prothean, but their speech is questionable."

"It will do, good job. How many ET's have you rescued?"

"26." Shepard tells him, "I've let a few keep their weapons to keep things calm and to make them feel somewhat secure. I know in a role reversal I would want a little something in case shit hits the fan."

The general nods in understanding, "I would have done the same. Now, because the aliens know you and your team, you guys are going to be providing a security detail for the aliens, this is very much a roll as it comes type of assignment. Understood?"

Ladochka Shepard nods, this means that for as long as the aliens are around, then so is her team, and who knows how long this will be, or what things will be required of her team over this period. "Crystal clear."

"Excellent. So, who is the alien leader?"

"Spikey alien 1." Shepard says as she gestures for Corvinus and Benezzia to join her, "He uses the blue woman to talk in Prothean."

"So no species name established yet then."

No."

The General takes a moment before nodding, "Anything else I should know?"

Shepard nods, "Yeah. If these aliens are anything like Humans, I would say they are exhausted and have probably been run ragged for a good while. Half of them passed out almost the moment they got on our ship, which is impressive considering their situation, and the rest just scream exhausted from their demeanour. I would suggest getting them somewhere to sleep safely would be a good start to relations."

The General nods, "I appreciate your analysis of the situation. We are currently looking to establish good relations with these ET's so little snippets of information like this will help a long way."

/.../

Corvinus watches the green mane marine and gets the hint when the woman beckons for himself to join her, and knowing he needs Benezzia to talk with these new aliens, he brings the Asari with him.

Getting in front of the general Corvinus does something unexpected, as he witnessed the exchange of salutes between the one with the green mane and the new man he figures that his own species and this new one is much alike. So, he shows the General a Turian salute, that being a fist to his heart.

The General looks caught off guard before saying something in Prothean. He does not recognise what is said, but Benezzia does.

"He says, welcome to Sol." Sol could be many things, from the starbase they are currently on to the solar system they are in, to even the planet below. What sol is, however, is unimportant, the welcoming is the crucial bit.

After a few more words are exchanged, it comes apparent the General is inviting them to a more comfortable room to speak in, and so the Captain accepts the offer. Eventually, the aliens are led to a comfortable room that has been set aside for them, inside there is a collection of fresh fruit, water and a few comfortable sofa's. The rooms main purpose is that of a holding pen or a communal area, and it was set up in haste when it was realised the aliens would be coming back onto SB1.

As the many aliens begin to find a chair to rest in the General pulls Shepard aside, "Keep the aliens here Shepard; hopefully, this next bit won't take too long." After speaking with Shepard, the General then leaves with the room with the lead alien, the second blue alien and two guards.

Finding a food synthesiser in the room Shepard approaches it and says, "Large Latte," and almost instantly the machine creates the drink from seemingly thin air, the only part the machine did not make is the ceramic cup. Taking her drink, she approaches a seat with a good view of both entrances and exits of the room and plonks herself down.

Looking around the aliens, she makes a few observations, of the 26 aliens there are 6 blue ones, and these aliens are almost all passed out or passing out, with only one blue alien actually being in a conscious state. It really did surprise her when she came across these all too human-looking aliens, but she isn't complaining, they are easy on the eyes compared to somethings science fiction has imagined in the past.

The spikey aliens are the most numerous of all the aliens, with there being 18 of them, and these are more like what she imagined aliens would look like. They have different eye structures, unusual hard looking skin, strange spikes coming from their heads and weird legs. These aliens are also what Shepard imagines are the fighters, they seem slightly more alert, more organised and are respecting some sort of hierarchy more than the other aliens. The third species, nicknamed 'Horns' is almost too sci-fi looking with their big black eyes, pale skin, and short complexion, it is like they are playing to some sort of stereotype alien from the early 21st century. She also notices what looks like a guarded show of respect to one of the blue aliens, but at this moment, Shepard is not too sure why.

It is not long until the General returns, and Shepard has her next task.

**Cheers for reading. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Alrighty, I am absolutely blown away by the amount of support this story has gained from just 1 chapter. 42 reviews (Wow) 222 favs, 322 follows, 7 communities, and 3,189 views. It honestly makes me question as to if my next chapter is up to scratch for that kind of support ha. **

**Anyway, my typical response to reviews is to answer the comments in the next chapter I push out, but for 42 reviews, I would need a chapter in its self to do that, so I've got to slim it down a bit so ill answer some with questions. I have appreciated all of your reviews however!**

**Frisbeeg70: Alot of your points will be addressed in story. If im honest however, the date selected was very much done as a last minute thing, originally I had 2,700's but for some reason that I can't remember (Thanks to the amount of time it takes to proof read an 8k story) I changed it. Thanks for your constructive criticism though. **

**SPARTAN-626 There will be many easter eggs to be found, but nothing direct. **

**Kira-117 The artefact is important, and related to the Protheans, (Thus the need for the Prothean experts) But no answer to what it is yet. **

**Effervescent Nova: Keep your eyes open for the number of Hanar ships mentioned in this chapter...**

**Orionastro: The answer to this is basically going to be related to how uninhabitable space actually is. There will be a more detailed answer coming in story. **

**Guest: Human space orcs? While it may look like its going to be a HFY! It's not in some sense. Humanity simply lacks the population to be a HFY! **

**SirMaou: If you want incest go watch game of thrones lol. No incest will be found here. **

Shortly, spikey alien 1 and the blue woman returns with the General, prompting Shepard to stand with her half-consumed coffee and approach. As she walks to the General's location, Shepard can see that the man is having some fundamental conversations with the blue alien in Prothean, who then relays it in another language to Spikes.

Before greeting Shepard the General takes a look around the room, and he can't help but notice the fact that most of the aliens are either sleeping or attempting to stay awake. "Shepard," The General then greets her, "The mess managers have cleared 38 rooms in the Commodus Officers Mess. Get them bedded in." This order probably means the rooms have now been fitted with cameras and recording equipment in order to see what they can learn from the aliens when they think they are not being watched. Really, the act of installing all the equipment is a little creepy, but Shepard understands the need for it considering the circumstances.

"Any hopes of a translation software?" Shepard asks with little hope before taking the task on.

"None yet. Best we can do at the moment is to let the computers and language experts observe them speaking in their native tongue." The General looks like he is about to finish speaking, but then he adds on, "Oh, and move some of your guys into the extra rooms. See what you can learn by living next to them for the duration of their stay, as well as providing a security buffer."

"Roger that. If you don't have anything else for myself or my team, I'll take them to their rooms now."

"By all means," The General says as he lets her go.

Soon, Shepard has a few aliens crowded into one of the rooms that has been set aside for them, "Blue is cold water, red is hot water." She tells the blue alien who understands Prothean, "Blue is also drinking water. If you need heating, press this button up, or air conditioning this button down."

These details may all seem like very basic things to a human, common knowledge even, but Shepard has to treat the aliens like they have never seen a studio style apartment in their lives before today. "And, these switches turn the lights on and off. Do not put your fingers in these plugs, you will get frazzled by 5 kilo-Amps of raw electrical power." Next, Shepard comes across the food synthesiser, "This will make you snacks, scroll the screen and select an item like so." Shepard hits a button, causing an almost blinding light to be generated underneath the display. The marine then takes the Strawberry Crush Icecream that was generated in the blinding light and hands it to one of the blue aliens.

Shepard scans around the room before nodding to herself, that should be everything. "Alright, that is everything you need to know about your rooms, this entire corridor has been assigned to your people and a few of my platoon, 1 room per person. If you need me, I am in room..." Shepard stops herself just short of saying 37, knowing the aliens will not know how to read human numbers, so instead, she says, "The last door on the left. Now, go and back brief your blokes."

As the aliens leave Shepard ponders just how much of that the blue alien actually understood and was capable of relaying onto the others, she also wonders if she should have reiterated a point or two like not putting one's fingers into a power socket.

/.../

In an hours time, all is quiet in the officer's mess with the only sound being of Shepard and seven of her platoon members cleaning their weapons in the corridor. Unbeknown to most, space is actually rather harsh to weapons, the vacuum of space boils away the moisture used in the oils that help keep a firearm lubricated, and leaves behind a solidified dirt which can cause jams and internal damage. The reason they clean their weapons together in the corridor is that as simple as it sounds, the mundane task is a team building activity.

"Spook inbound, boss," Ashley says, prompting Shepard to look up towards the entrance of the mess. Sure enough, there is a thin man with an intelligence insignia on his arm allowing himself inside. Shepard figured her team would be visited sooner or later by someone from the intelligence community.

"PMR?" She asks as she continues to clean her own weapon.

"Yes, we need to debrief you." As the man says 'you' he looks around all of Shepard's men, letting them know that this is a group event.

Shepard nods before gesturing to a spot on the floor, "Then pull a chair up, should be one available in the room behind me."

The man does as asked and begins his interrogation of her team, "I'm not here for your typical post-mission report," He tells them, "Instead, I want to know about the alien craft and its occupants. What I am looking for is anything that can tell us about them, how the ship was designed internally, how it operated, what did you notice about the aliens, how were they operating."

"Slow down big man," Shepard says as she pulls out a new tool from her rifle cleaning kit and begins to use it, "One thing at a time."

The man takes a moment to pause before looking down to a notepad and asking, "How was the ship internally designed..."

"You have the video footage," Kaiden tells him as if it holds all his answers.

The man nods, "Yes, but the footage only shows so much, I want you to tell me what you saw, what your opinions of it were, and how it made you feel."

Vega raises an eyebrow at that last bit, "How it made me feel? Like did it make me feel like going out and having a steak or..."

"James, you always want a steak," Ashley tells him in jest, "I would be more concerned if it made you stop wanting to eat."

"Please," The slim man tells Shepard's group, obviously not amused by their banter, "It is important I get these opinions so we can try and deduce more on how the aliens operate, and surely I do not need to tell you how important that is."

"Alright," Shepard says to her group, "Let's stop getting his knickers in a twist."

/.../

Intelligence Room 042 - Star Base 1

A man looks across a few of the screens in front of him, "So," He then asks a few in the room, "Anything interesting on TV tonight?"

One of the men in the room nods, "Sure, channel five recently had some good stuff on it."

The first man looks to a screen that is labelled 'Room 5' before approaching it and rewinding the footage. Soon, the man is watching as an Asari strips from her oily clothes and climbs into bed, "Huh," The man says, "This will keep most men happy." The Asari has more than a few human features.

"Yeah, happy indeed. We have also noticed a few other things, got it all in this notepad." After saying 'notepad,' the man holds up an A4 notepad and waves it slightly in the air.

The man approaches the second and takes the notepad from his hand. Sitting down in a nearby chair he starts to flick through the pages. "Spikes sleep with their weapons in their bed...No surprise there, in unknown territory and will likely have been drilled to sleep with weapons." The man flicks through a few other uninteresting facts like one or two of the Blue aliens were sleeping in the same room, "Horns used their 'glowing gizzmo' to either take pictures of or scan most of room?" The man looks up from the notepad, "Glowing gizzmo?" He asks, looking for further information.

"Don't know how best to describe it other than a holographic device of some kind. The device is projected by a bracelet worn on the right hand, and most of the aliens are wearing one of these bracelets."

"Interesting." The man says before burying his nose once more in the pages of the notepad. Eventually, he starts reading aloud again, "Alien leader and blue alien 1 regularly speak with blue alien 2?"

"Yeah," The second man says, "Noticed it the second we had eyes on, it is potentially someone of interest so we have been keeping an eye on it, and so far I think blue alien 2 is someone they are trying to hide."

"I see," The man says with some thought before once more going back to the notepad. "Great interest in the food synthesiser?"

"All of the aliens have shown great interest in it. Some of them just kept making random things, but not eating it, others have tried a few things, but seem more interested in the synthesiser itself. Looks to me like they have never seen one."

"You would think a FTL capable species would have come across a synthesiser."

"Well, that's just what we observed."

The first man shrugs before going back to the notepad, and eventually, he says, "The Spikes are only drinking water?"

"Yes. The Blue's and Horns have eaten a few of the fruits in the anteroom and tried some food produced by the synthesisers, but the spikes are yet to eat anything."

"Hmm," The man thinks before standing and handing the man his notepad back, "Excellent observations so far, keep up the good work."

/.../

Commodus Officer's Mess

The man with the intelligence logo on his arm spends a good hour interrogating Shepard and crews memory, where the group tell of everything they figured was important, including Shepard hunch that one of the blue aliens is someone of significance. Just before the slim man finishes his interrogation of the group Shepard turns her head to where a red light has begun to flash, and very quickly a voice comes over the space stations internal intercom, "All hands man battle stations. This is not a drill."

"Here comes that fleet spikes was telling us of." Shepard concludes as she and her comrades jump to their feet.

/.../

T-5 mins - Hierarchy War Vessel Accipitridae - Dreadnought.

Fleet Commander Rouse Quirinus is nothing but an experienced military man, having spent the vast majority of his long life on war vessels of one sort or another once he spread his wings and left Palavern. Many argue that in his grand age of 89 Palavern years that he should retire from active front line service and take up a position in Naval Headquarters, advising the politicians on what their fleets can and can not do. It would be a job well within Quirinus capabilities, in fact, it is widely recognised that he would excel in it, but the man would find little to no fun in it, and this is something he knows. Quirinus loves the thrill peacekeeping can give him, the challenges of capturing emboldened pirates, and the risk of just living in the most hostile environment known to Turians, other than the middle of the ocean of course. There is little about peacekeeping Quirinus does not enjoy other than those dark days where he loses men or when politics gets involved with his missions.

Eyeing the newly opened Relay that the Avian has fled through Quirinus takes a moment to think, he does not know what lies in wait at the far side, he could make an assumption, but assumptions are known to be the mother of all fuck-ups. In this particular situation, Quirinus knows he should send through a recce party of two or three ships, to make sure the waters are safe, so to speak, but this mission requires getting to the Avian's aid as soon as Turianly possible, so time-saving measures need to be taken when and where possible. Had the Avian not been carrying the Asari Councillor and a 'Priority 1 level artefact,' Quirinus would follow protocol and send the recce, but today, the protocol is out the proverbial window. To combat this lack of time, Quirinus has made and delivered a diverse set of orders that encompass the most likely set of discoveries, and the most dangerous set of discoveries, that way, people should know how to act if any situation arises across a broad spectrum of possible situations. The most dangerous discovery, of course, is a new hostile species equivalent to the Rachni.

Looking out his dreadnoughts forward observation window Quirinus sees what looks like the last ship to assume its position in the fleet, prompting him to ask aloud, "Fleet Orchestrator, has the assigned disposition been assumed?" The Fleet Orchestrators job is to ensure that everyone in the fleet is where they are supposed to be.

"It has, Fleet Commander."

"Then initiate phase 2, take us through the uncharted relay."

"As you command."

Slowly the fleet of 31 vessels begin to approach the relay and Prothean megastructure begins to toss the ships across the galaxy at unfathomable speeds. 31 Vessels is a typical number of ships in a Turian fleet because in Turian mythology, 31 is a lucky number, but it is also used because a Turian Fleet Commander will struggle to use any more than 31 vessels effectively.

Arriving in a new and unmapped system mere seconds after entering the Relay corridor Quirinus allows for a few moments in order to allow the helmsman to rapidly jump 10,000km away from the relay, in order to make his vessel a hard target should anyone be aiming at the relay exit point. This small time period also allows people to do some work before he asks, "System breakdown." This request should surprise none of his officers.

The officer responsible for intelligence answers his Commanding Officer first, "Avian emergency broadcast system detected at pushed co-ords, I can not ascertain the condition of the ship at this location. Additionally, Unidentified Satellite in orbit of the relay has been detected, it lacks markers to signal its creator."

Friend Foe Identification officer speaks next, "No additional blue, red, green, orange or black forces on Ladar." Blue forces are friendly forces, red are enemy, green is civilian, orange is for people who are neither enemy, nor friends, and black is criminal networks.

The signals officer is the next to answers Quirinus, "No artificial signals identified outside of the Avians distress call, the system is quiet. The Relay is accepting and transmitting our communications to HQ. Time for messages to reach HQ is 27 hours 13"

Finally, the Combat Terrain officer speaks, "System has 4 planets, 3 of which are gas giants, and the forth is a category 3 dwarf planet. Star is a G2V Main sequence star. Solar system is aligned at 63 degrees to galaxies plane, no additional relays detected."

Quirinus takes a second to process all this information and make some deductions before saying aloud, "The Avian was being chased by 6 Hanar Whirlpools and was carrying battle damage, meaning I do not for one second believe the Avian destroyed all six Hanar vessels." Hanar vessels may not have the weaponry of a Turian vessel or the shields of an Asari warship, but traditionally Hanar vessels have more than respectable armour and hull designs, allowing them to take a stern beating most Turian vessels would be outright destroyed in.

The Friend Foe Officer speaks in response to his commanding officer, "We have nothing on sensors, sir."

Quirinus clucks his tongue in thought before turning to look at a screen which has the local system broken down into its component parts, "The Gas Giants, what are their main atmospheric elements?"

"Hydrogen, Helium and traces of Methane."

Quirinus thinks for a moment, Hanar vessels can enter very dense atmospheres that most citadel vessels would be crushed in, and can even operate under oceans as sea fairing vessels, which in itself is an amazing technological feat. Quirinus knows from experience that the Hanar can and do use their unique hulls to hide from Turian sensors in thick atmospheres such as those found in gas giants or deep oceans. With this in mind, the Fleet Commander issues a set of quick battle orders, "On each Gas Giant, I want a sentry doing constant surveillance, if the Hanar are hiding in them then I want them found. Formation C is to guard the relay in order to prevent escape from this system, a further tasking is to study the unidentified satellite. The rest of our battle group are to proceed to the Avian at maximum fleet velocity."

/.../

UNSC

A General studies a screen with great interest, the fleet he was warned of has eventually shown itself, and he can't help but admire the predatory design of the Turian vessels. To the General, they scream of power, danger, and the will to fight.

"What do you make of them?"

The General can not really say too much on the design of the vessels other than highlight the huge cannon on the dreadnought, this is because he simply does not know enough about how their tech works to make any assumptions. However, the general can talk about some of the tactics he has seen, "In short, experienced and drilled. The hard targetting out of the relay was unseen by any of the previous ships, and it is a tactic our troops use that was developed over hundreds of years of war in urban environments meaning I assume these too know of war, further, the fleet formation is tightly controlled. Their whole formation reminds me a lot of how an Aircraft Carrier once roamed the sea's with its escort, so I would assume they also have a stealth vessel or two somewhere we are yet to discover. So, to answer your question, we are not dealing with pirates here but a drilled military."

The President nods before turning to a woman in the room, "Cerberus, how are your preparations?"

The woman in command of Cerberus looks up from the screen showing the Turian ships and to the President, "As we speak defences are being re-located to suitable locations, but our main effort has been achieved."

"Excellent." The President says before asking, "Have we made any more progress in establishing a method to communicate with the new fleet?" When it was learned a fleet would be coming, it very quickly became apparent that a method of communicating would need to be found. The Turian captain when asked had tried to give some insight and direction but was unable to help past providing some insight into how the ships communicated using light at a certain frequency as a means of sending data. Part of the problem for the limited help was the fact the Prothean language was not easy for the Turian to express exactly what he meant.

"We are going to start by broadcasting a simple pattern in the EM spectrum. The turian mentioned 9.3 Ghz so we will start there."

This causes all eyes to look at the man responsible for establishing communications. "You mean like in that old film? You have to be jesting me."

"I'm open to suggestions." The man hits back.

The room enters a small silence till a knock is heard on the door of the room, followed by Shepard entering with the blue alien and the Turian Captain.

/.../

HWV Accipitridae

As the fleet begins its approach towards the Avian Quirinus begins to think some more, why did the Avian find itself where it is right now, as in why did it head in the direction it has. After a few minutes of travelling the Combat Terrain Officer says, "Sensors have detected a second Dwarf Planet. Category 2." Cat 2 means the dwarf planet is in the solar systems Goldilocks zone, meaning it could harbour life and liquid water.

Turning the Fleet Commander looks once more to the solar systems break down before asking, "What is the atmosphere of this dwarf planet?"

The Combat Terrain officer replies, "None detected, it's just a small dwarf planet barely larger than a moon." Unlike on the Avian, with a Salarian sensor expert and some of the most modern sensors, the combat terrain officer fails to notice anything wrong with the small dwarf planet and its dubious gravity well.

Quirinus knows the Avian will have better sensors than his own fleet, so he asks, "Then why did the Avian head towards this dwarf planet? Do we have visuals?"

"Not yet, Sir. I deduce that there must be a fine dust cloud in between ourselves and the planet preventing a clear image."

After five minutes a zoomed in visual is available of the planet and Quirinus spends many long minutes studying the image. The world is evidently occupied, and by an advanced species if the phenomenal ringworld in orbit of the planet says anything. Turning to the Combat Terrain officer, the Fleet Commander says, "This does not look like a Dwarf Planet, and it most certainly has an atmosphere, not to mention unknown habitants."

Turning to the Identify Friend Foe officer, Quirinus asks, "Any unidentified vessels on LADAR?"

"Negative, Sir."

"Well, I doubt that a species capable of building a ringworld like that lacks a navy." Quirinus spends another minute collecting his thoughts before speaking again, "Fleet Orchestrator, assume formation B3, and raise the threat level to 4. Rules of engagement are to reduce to Omega. Communications, attempt to hail the Avian." Under these rules of Engagement, the Turian fleet can actively defend itself; however, it is not allowed to destroy hostile vessels outright, instead, they are to cripple if possible.

As the Turian speaks, because of the increase of threat level, thick steel composite shutters slowly lower into positions over windows, adding a little extra protection to the ships weak points. The shutters contrary to popular belief, aren't to protect from direct shots; instead, they are for protection against fast moving shrapnel from other damaged vessels.

/.../

UNSC

A man sat behind a computer screen speak aloud, "Sir, detecting a large surge of power in all vessels." As the man says this steel shutters can also be seen to lower over Turian windows.

A general turns to the Asari looking for an explanation, and eventually, after consulting with Corvinus, he tells her, "They have assumed formation B3, and I suspect at the sight of your world, they have also raised the threat level to 3 or 4, resulting in the lowered window shutters. This means their shields are powered and weapons are pre-loaded. We need to contact them now before anything else happens." Benezzia then translates this the best she can to the General.

"We have been trying." Someone tells her.

Corvinus flares his mandibles downwards a bit when Benezzia tells him this, a Turian nod, before saying to her, "The Avain had Salarian sensors, meaning the best we have, and we still struggled to see their world because of whatever cloaking tech they are using. I suspect the signal is still too weak for them to detect through this cloaking technology." Benezzia once more translates this to the best of her capabilities.

The General nods after recieving some explanation from the blue alien, "Then we up the power." A simple solution, so one would think.

/.../

HWV Accipitridae

By now Quirinus fleet is 350,000km away from the unidentified planet, and only 15,000km away from the battle damaged Avian. On the planet, megacities can be seen that make Illium look small, and the Ringworld above the planet only looks that much more substantial and intimidating now Quirinus knows its circumference is 5,000 km.

"Fleet Commander, I have compiled a report on the Avians Status. We have also discovered 5 Whirlpools..."

Quirinus flares his one mandible a little before turning to look at the officer who spoke, "Whirlpool status?"

"KIA. Showing a visual now." Soon an image of a whirlpool is on screen, however, it can not be easily identified as such due to its extreme hull disfigurement. "All five whirlpools feature similar disfigurement Sir, this is the least disfigured."

The Turian brings a hand to the bottom of his jaw at the sight, showing his deep thought. These Whirlpools look like they have been within extreme proximity to a star, but how on good Plavern did they end up like that here? Thinking through the possible answers to this question Quirinus comes to the most likely answer, "Turians," He says after a moment, "It would appear like these waters have bigger fish than these Whirlpools. Our mission has come more complex than initially thought." Turning to his intelligence officer he asks, "What is the condition of the Avian?"

"Mission killed, Sir. Battle damage would indicate it has taken a direct shot from a Super Heated Tungsten round."

"Crew?"

"No life signs detected."

Quirinus looks to the floor for a moment before looking back up, "Send a party to board with the Avian, we will not assume all hands are lost till we can confirm it with boots on the ground."

"As you command."

"Fleet Orchestrator, alert all vessels to regroup, once we have confirmed the condition of the Avians crew I intend on advancing to this new world. Comms, find me the protocol for initiating first contact." Had the Avian not carried the Councillor Quirinus would have advanced on the alien world immediately. "Also, we are still one Whirlpool down, so we are to maintain our original goal of apprehending all Hanar assailants till we know of their fate."

It takes half an hour to get some boots on the Avian, and soon Quirinus is hearing a report from the men he sent aboard. "Sir, this place is all but evacuated, only a few dead bodies left in the medical bay. Additionally, the computer cores are scrambled, without a doubt this ship has gone under an electronics purge. We have also reclaimed the level 1 artefact, it was hidden under the floorboards." A typical Turian hiding location.

"Is there any signs of forced boarding? Any sign of the Councillor?" If there was forced entry it would be unmistakable, not only from firearm damage but from fortifications made, doors welded shut, barricades and bloodstained walls.

"Fortifications look like they were started in some key locations but never finished, so to me, it looks like it was abandoned by choice. No sign of the Councillor, but we are yet to check the bridge."

"Understood. When you arrive on the bridge endeavour to find if the Captain left a log behind. If needed, use council authorisation codes to access any locked electronics." Quirinus knows that if possible, the captain would have left some sort of log to say why he abandoned the ship and where his people have gone - it is common procedure among all space fairing vessels to do so, in order so that any rescue vessels can find the crew.

Sure enough, after a bit of searching his men onboard the Avian find something. "Sir, we found council encrypted video in the captain's chair, uploading it now."

After a few seconds Quirinus is looking at a video, showing the Captain of the Avian if the rank slide says anything.

"To whoever is watching this, this is my last log as captain of the CV Avian. My vessel has taken heavy damage from Hanar Whirlpools and needs to be evacuated. I have given the order for my crew and all! Asari workers to join our new alien friends on their stealth vessel. I made this choice freely and was not coerced into making such a choice. Like how Xiavia was forced to flee to higher ground when the oceans rose, I suppose." This last little bit refers to a well known Turian story from the history books regarding how a city was required to flee an impending tsunami. It is only a story Turians would really know, and it goes to tell Quirinus that the captain is actually making his decision to evacuate through his own choice. "As far as I know, my people are to head back to their world, the third planet in this solar system, but we are yet to establish any proper means of communication. I should inform any Citadel affiliated vessel, however, that they are being watched, and are in the range of powerful weapons. We do not know the weapons nature, only their power, and they are capable of eliminating Hanar Whirlpools with a single shot.

Spirits providing, this is helpful information, and I shall see my family soon. Spirits be with you."

Quirinus clucks his tongue twice, he now knows this new species has stealth vessels and some incredibly powerful weaponry to boot. Tapping a button Quirinus speaks to the away team, "Good work retrieving the artefact Captain. Get it and yourself back onto my vessel." After cutting the comm line to the boarding party Quirinus takes a small relieved breath, small hope building within him that the Avians crew may still be alive.

Soon, the away team are back onboard their vessel and the Fleet Commander gives permission for the fleet to begin its advance onto the new world.

/.../

UNSC

"Distance, 300,000km. Still no response to hails."

The president pulls a hand down his face, he can not let such a powerful fleet so close to Earth, yet at the same time, he can not do something provocative. "We have suggestion." The Asari speaks to him.

The president looks to the blue alien, "Please go ahead." The Asari and Turian are allowed in the room to provide insight on the Turian fleet.

"Captain Corvinius tells shot across ship bow, no closer 50,000km. Turian ships stop."

A General hearing this frowns, "Doing so would give away the fact we have defensive platforms around Earth."

"We can do it from the moon. Less collateral if it goes wrong."

The president takes a second before nodding. "Do it."

/.../

HWV Accipitridae

"Detecting power surge from planets moon." Someone cries out in order to alert Quirinus.

A second later before Quirinus could say anything another Turian shouts, "Some sort of shot has just passed our bow. Maybe plasma, or some superheated gas. Distance 78,000 km."

"All ships halt in place." Quirinus quickly says, "That was a warning shot if I ever did see one. Comms, do we still not have anything?"

"Nothing yet, Fleet Commander."

Quirinus walks back and forth on his bridge for a minute, thinking. He knows that this species is capable of reason and thought, they would not have offered to rescue those on the Avian if they were not. He spends half an hour thinking, and with still no comms established he says, "Fleet Orchestrator, send the Goshawk forward 25,000km."

/.../

UNSC

The president is starting to get annoyed if he was honest, the Turian fleet is either ignoring the signals being sent to them or have not realised they are being sent a signal. For this reason, the Hawkings has been dispatched to rebroadcast the signal in space so that the signal is unmissable.

Seeing a ship move forward out of the Turian fleet the president leans forward. "What if we can convince this one ship to come here?" He asks.

"It would solve a lot of problems." A General tells him, before looking to the Asari in the room, "How would we convince that ship to follow one of ours?"

The blue alien and the spikey alien talk for some time between themselves before the Asari responds to the General. "Ship fly in circle," She walks to the screen that has the Turian fleet on and draws her finger around the forward Turian ship, "Then fly here." She finishes by pointing to the ground.

The president spends a minute before nodding, "I like it. Tell the Hawkings."

/.../

HWV Accipitridae

By now, it has been an hour since the warning shot across the bow of the ship, and Quirinus is beginning to wonder if they are looking at this the wrong way. The civilisation in front of them is obviously advanced, the ringworld speaks for this, so maybe these people don't use light as a means of communication anymore, and maybe they aren't looking for his own comms. A good way of thinking about it is if he was asked to send a message he would send a message over light based comms, but a Turian a thousand years back would send a man on foot to the where the message needs to be delivered. Maybe, in this circumstance, he is the Turian searching for the messenger that was sent on foot, and this civilisation is looking for the light signal.

As Quirinus muses to himself he hears some one call out, "Fleet Commander, Unidentified stealth vessel detected 50,000km to the bow."

"On screen." There is only one species that vessel can belong to, the Turian thinks.

Soon, there is an image of a small stealth vessel on a viewing screen, and Quirinus watches as it slowly approaches and circles the forward vessel twice before stopping in front of it and slowly moving back towards the planet just in front of his fleet. "Fleet Orchestrator, have the Goshawk follow that vessel."

"As you command."

Over the next five minutes, Quirinus watches with great interest and concern as the Goshawk follows the stealth vessel. Usually, he would not allow a single vessel to get so separated from his fleet when there are unknowns such as stealth vessels, but when a new civilisation is discovered, some usual protocol needs to be discarded for a successful first contact, or so he thinks. "Fleet Commander, we have lost comms with the Goshawk."

The Turian leader turns to face comms, "Technical issues?"

"Don't think so, their signal power dropped over the last five seconds substantially, it is more like they are being blocked."

Quirinus does not like this one bit, and alarm bells are ringing inside his head, "Do we still have comms with the rest of the fleet?"

"Yes."

Quirinus walks back and forth a bit before saying, "Send a comms buoy forward 50,000km to relay our messages forward."

"As you command."

/.../

UNSC

Corvinius was trying his best to calm the room, these humans did not seem to appreciate the comms buoy that the fleet in orbit dispatched, "Communications relay." He tells them. "Communications relay."

It is then that a man in the room asks, "If they use light-based comms, will it be able to penetrate our EM shielding?" The EM shields have been in operation for hundreds of years, its purpose is to protect Earth from solar flares. Its need became apparent after a solar flare in the year 2284 wiped out half the electronics on Earth, which directly resulted in millions of deaths. The day is known as the darkest day in human history, not only due to the massive amounts of death but also because of how humanity plummeted into darkness as electric circuits failed.

This causes a few in the room to stop doing what they are doing and eventually one says, "Never thought of that." Because the EM shielding has been around for so long and does not actively play a part in protecting Earth from hostile intent, many in the room often forget the EM shield even exists. To most, the EM shield is just a bit of infrastructure they never see, like the vast servers that allow the internet to operate or the water processing plants that turn sewage water into safe clean water that is safe to put back into the ocean.

"Can we turn it off?" Asks the president.

"No, at least I don't think so. I've never heard of it being turned off." Turning the General who just spoke asks another man, "Have you ever heard of the EM shield being turned off?"

"Can't say I have."

The President looks at the men for a moment before saying, "Do you have Google on your phones?"

The men spend a minute googling before someone begins to read off their phone, "The Global Electromagnetic Shield was designed to never be shut down. The system incorporates enough redundancy that numerous generators can be individually shut down for maintenance, which will result in additional generators in the system stepping up to temporarily cover the power loss of these generators."

The man scrolls down on his phone before reading some more, "The EM shield was not designed to be shut down.." The man then scratches his nose before adding, "This was written in the year 2876."

The president raises a brow before saying, "It appears the EM shield has been seriously neglected. Someone find me an expert who can give us an answer in case our latest plan falls through."

/.../

HWV Accipitridae

"Fleet Commander, we have re-established communications with the Goshawk."

Quirinus flares a mandible slightly, relieved to hear that he now has comms with his away ship. "Excellent. If we start to lose comms again, send another comm buoy 50,000km past the first comms buoy to rebroadcast the first comms buoy."

"As you command."

For the next half an hour nothing happens, the Stealth ship just continues to guide the Goshawk to a relatively small space station above the planet. As the Goshawk gets closer to the space station it comes evident that the ship will be required to dock, but the docks do not appear to be compatible with the Goshawk. "Fleet Commander, the Captain of the Goshawk is going to land in the space station on a shuttlecraft."

At the moment, there are 5 comm buoys relaying the messages to and from the Goshawk. Whatever shield or electronic warfare is in operation above the planet, it is impressing Quirinus.. "Understood."

/.../

Captain Remus of the Goshawk looks across the ten men in the shuttlecraft with him, they are all good men that have served on his scout vessel for numerous years. "Ready to meet a new species?" He asks them with some cheer in his voice as he feels the shuttlecraft land on the alien space station.

"As long as they don't shoot at us." One man quips back to Remus.

"If they do, just remember your training and all will go well, that and the dreadnought Quirinus has aimed at this station." Standing Remus makes his way to the shuttlecrafts door, "But, are you ready to live forever?"

"Sir?" One of his subbies asks with a flare of his mandibles.

"Were about to meet a new species Consus, our names will go in the history books." With that said the Captain presses a button on his Omni-tool and says, "Goshawk, we are about to disembark the shuttlecraft." Despite having a camera on his armour that is being streamed back to the Goshawk, and then back to the Accipitridae, Remus tells them what he is doing out of habit. After receiving confirmation his message was heard he hits a button on the wall next to him and the door slowly opens.

When the door is fully opened it quickly comes clear to Remus that he is not going to be going down in any history books today, a Turian and an Asari stood by a new unidentified group of aliens will take that glory. Stepping out of his shuttlecraft he approaches the unidentified aliens and stops short just before them.

On the ride to this location, Remus had thought of what he would say at this precise moment in time, he thought of many awesome things to say, and many things he would love to say, but at this moment in time he comes up blank. Not knowing what else to say, he decides to go for the classic, so clearing his throat he then slams a hand to his heart and says, "Captain Remus, Turian Navy."

The new pink and brown aliens look to an Asari who says something to them in an odd language before a man in a dark navy blue uniform brings his right hand up to his right eye, palm facing downwards, a classic Russian salute. The alien then says something back, and Remus looks to the Asari for an explanation.

The Asari takes the hint, "Captain Remus, this is General Anatoly, of the United Nations Space Command. He welcomes you to Sol, their solar system."

Remus quickly realises that all conversation is going to have to flow through the Asari, "Please tell the General, the Turian Navy thanks his species for welcoming us to Sol, and for inviting myself to their station." As the Asari speaks to the Human Remus looks to Corvinus, and asks, "Everything in order?"

Corvinus gives the Turian equivalent of a nod as he says, "We are being treated with great respect and care. If anything, my time onboard this station has been pleasurable. Please relay back to your fleet, that any communications with these people will need to be done in Prothean."

Remus taps the camera on his armour, just as the Asari begins to say, "The General says it is Humanities pleasure to invite you here, however, he asks that before we go any further if you could request the fleet that remained behind at the relay to stop interfering with their satellite."

"I will relay the request on." Remus waits for the Asari to translate this to the General before bringing his omni-tool out and pressing a few buttons. With a connection established he says, "Fleet Commander Quirinus, the aliens have requested for you stop C Formation from investigating their satellite." Unbeknownst to the Turians, they are currently playing around with a satellite that has a very dangerous anti-matter core at its heart.

It takes a second for the great Fleet Commander to respond, "Captain Remus, I have relayed the order on out of good faith."

Looking to the Asari Remus then says, "I have relayed the request on and the Fleet Commander is obeying." The Turian then looks to the General, "I am sorry, but I did not get your species name."

After hearing the Asari's tranlsation the man says a long string of words before holding a hand out, prompting Remus to look to the Asari, "The General says his species is known as Human. He thanks you for accepting his request, and offers his hand. He says a..." The Asari frowns a little as she tries to think how best to describe what she just heard in Prothean, bearing in mind she is not the most proficient Prothean speaker, "...joint hand wave is common among his people to show trust, respect, balance, and equilibrium." This is what the Asari thinks he was trying to say.

"Am I to grab his hand?" Remus asks the Asari.

Again there is some collab between the Asari and the General before the Asari tells Remus, "Yes," With a quick blink of her eyes, the Asari equivalent of a human nod.

Remus slowly reaches out for the Generals hand and the two share an uneasy handshake, but the act seemed to do something as the General was giving what the Asari would call a smile. The General then says something, which the Asari once more translates, "The General says we should move this conversation to somewhere more comfortable."

"We are his guests, and it would be rude to say no," Remus says with his own Turian smile.

**Thanks all. **


	3. Chapter 3

**So I am still bamboozled by all the support for this story. **

**Special Mention: Spartan 626 for sending me a 10,559 word message with ideas he/she has. To answer your last message, I'm still going through your ideas, trying to think how to slot them in and when I figure out what I like I'll get back to you. Massive thanks though! **

**Cheers all for that. **

**RR - Again I couldnt answer everyone due to the sheer number of reviews, (A really nice problem to have if I am honest) but I will answer a few here.**

**Heartfanglives: Humanities strengths is going to come from the fact they have alot of tech the citadel will want, but in a military sense they are going to be weak, but strong at the same time. Unable to launch an offensive per say, but strong in that to actually get to a planet and attack will be a hard feat because of their defences. They are going to be more of a fort knoxx type thing, the fort is hard to do anything against but the fort is not able to move on enemies.**

**Duke Phelan: The language issue is not going away, and it will continue to be a problem for a considerable time. Cheers. **

**Pyrforos: Ha, I am tempted. Evil Overlord Blasto would defo be a dangerous villain. **

**naruto namikaze 9: Everyone does love the complete tag, and all authors on here love the support through faves, follows and reviews! Cheers.**

**Kira 117: Quirinus is my creation, and that was my goal, make a Turian who isn't the typical portrayal, that being gun-ho. The melding is going to work a little different in this universe, atleast it does when not Asari-Asari. We will get to how it is different later in the story. And Shhh, no giving away story spoilers. **

**Evilthelast: Organising a well oiled fleet takes time, organising a bunch of slavers will take even longer. I do not plan on anything like this happening - for a while.**

**ThePrimeCronos: Thankyou! **

/.../

**Final note: I've pushed this one out earlier than I wanted to because I'm going off radar for a while, so I didn't want to leave this without update for who knows how long. Should be back in about a month. Maybe earlier if I get a day or two off. What I want to say is, if it has a few errors, I'm sorry. **

Fleet Commander Quirinus looks over an image as an Officer speaks to him, "From our brief analysis we have noted 5 things."

"Yes, do go on."

The Turian Officer reaches over and zooms into a part of the craft, "They achieve stealth by being able to turn on what we suspect is a nano-coat paint, capable of absorbing a minimum of 99.9% of light, making it effectively undetectable in the visible spectrum. We have a few ships that have experimented with something similar in the years past."

"What happened to them?" Asks Quirinus.

"Officially," The Officer speaks, "Development of stealth vessels was banned under Citadel Law after the Asari discovered a similar Salarain vessel in their space. After that, who knows."

"Probably developed further by high command, put up a request for information on how we can detect such vessels. For now, can we detect their Eezo core, transmissions or gravity wells?"

"Eezo we will come to in a moment, transmissions are unlikely, they were silent when circling the Goshawk, as for gravity wells, it is possible, but easily fooled. Without reflecting or emitting light for us to analyse, it will be hard for us to determine what is causing the gravity well, it could be a small asteroid that is in a shadow, thus a lack of light to reflect, or one of their stealth ships."

"I see," Quirinus says while thinking on a solution, "What else have you concluded?"

"Have a look at where the weapons are placed, what do you notice?"

"They face rearwards, towards the engines," Quirinus says, "Now why would they do that? Unless... Do they lack eezo engines?"

"Most certainly, we could detect none of the element on the stealth vessel, further, we can't even detect a slither of the element in this space. Their engines we believe are neutron engines."

Quirinus thinks hard for a moment, neutron engines have the advantage of being almost undetectable, but they are slow and incapable of FTL, meaning these stealth vessels are not meant to leave this system. Who uses stealth as a primary form of defence, wonders Quirinus, who is a firm believer of visible deterrents like dreadnoughts. "So, they can't use Eezo to rapidly slow down and will come at us engines facing forward to slow, which is why the guns face to the back of the vessel and not the front. What can you deduce about their weaponry?"

"That," The officer says with a scratch of his neck, "Is where we begin to guess more than evaluate. This is what we suspect the weapon to be," The Turian taps to a large metal rod that is slightly glowing orange, the rod is facing backwards, towards the engines. "We suspect this is what they use to shoot the plasma we came across earlier."

"No Mass Accelerator Cannons?"

"Hard to tell but I doubt it. These holes in the ship here and here are potentials but with no element zero, I struggle to see how they would accelerate a heavy projectile to required velocities. It is more likely due to the number of these holes that they are for missiles."

"I see," Quirinus says before looking to another officer in the room, "Aurelia, how effective will our barriers be to plasma?" Quirinus is not overly concerned about the missiles, his fleet has more than ample missle defence platforms, and they are a known, he has come across more than a hundred different types of missiles in his life. What he does not know about is the plasma weaponry, and this is what he is most concerned about.

The Turian whose name was called looks up from a work station, "I've been working on this Fleet Commander. The best I can say at the moment is that without our deflector operating, we are defenceless. If we find a way to power our deflector when stationary or not in FTL, it should be adequate to protect from head-on shots."

"Will this be hard to implement?"

The Turian looks uncertain, "The deflector requires immense levels of energy to operate, and I suspect we will have to sacrifice certain functions for it."

"Such as?"

"As crazy as this sounds, shields, Fleet Commander. Our shields will not actually stop a plasma shot. The velocity of the warning shot was 97.76% the speed of light, our shields would fail to activate in time." Shields are not permanently active because of the vast amounts of energy that would draw, they power up when they detect a shot is going to hit, further shields generate vasts amount of heat which would need dissipating at regular intervals.

Quirinus thinks hard, to sacrifice shields for the deflector is a bold strategy, unheard of even. "Are you certain this will work? Could we not permanently power the shields?"

"The shields are not rated for that type of use, they would fail after a few hours of being permanently on, so the deflector is the best answer I have at this moment."

Quirinus taps his chair arm for a few moments before flaring his mandible downwards slightly, "I trust your decision Aurelia. Fleet Orchestrator, when Aurelia is ready with a plan of action, have it passed onto the fleet."

"As you command," The Fleet Orchestrator says as the Fleet Commander goes back to watching the conversation on the alien space station.

/.../

The General leads the Turian Captain and his small entourage to a nearby room which has been pre-prepared in anticipation of this conversation. The room itself is vastly different from what most would suspect the first contact with a new species would take place in, instead of a small formal room with a desk surrounded by chairs being the main feature, the room the general has led them to is a larger open room with some comfortable chairs laid out at multiple locations. Inside the room, a few paintings decorate the walls that show various phases in Humanities technological and military advances. The oldest photo is an ancient sea battle between two sail ships donning gun powder cannons, and the most recent photo is an image of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers inserting into a combat zone. The pictures were carefully chosen to show the Turians that Humanity is experienced in the art of war, without the General actually having to say anything. The pictures could also be viewed as a non-verbal warning, something that says, we know how to throw a punch if push comes to shove. Despite the underlying message of the paintings, they do not dominate the room, instead, it is the comfortable nature of the room that pulls one's attention.

The laid back feeling of the room was also done on purpose, it is hoped that the rooms setting may help defuse any possible frictions between Humanity and the new aliens, by keeping people feeling more relaxed. No one within the UNSC could really say what the aliens would find relaxing, so they just went with what a human would find relaxing, and hoped the feeling would be mutual with the aliens.

Finding his way to a set of highback armchairs the General gestures for his guests to sit down first, and then when everyone is seated he is the last to sit. There is a small coffee table between the General and Captain Remus, and sitting on top of the table there is a few empty glasses and a large jug of cold water with condensation dripping down its outside. Taking a glass and jug of water in his hands he asks those he brought to the room, "Water?"

A few around the table accept the offer of water, so the General makes sure he serves each and everyone a glass. With everyone now settled in the General looks to the Asari who has been translating for him, "Could you please Tell Captain Remus that should you wish, you and your fellow comrades from the Avian are free to travel back with himself."

The Asari takes a second to understand the Generals Prothean before relaying the message on, it takes her a little longer than usual as she is desperate not to miscommunicate anything the General may be saying. "But if they want," The General then speaks when the Asari finishes interpreting, "We can accommodate them for a while so we may learn from one another."

Captain Remus considers this for a second before thanking the General for the offer and for saving the Avian's crew. Captian Remus also tells the General that Humanities actions in saving the Avian will not be overlooked by the Citadel Council, who will be sure to send representatives to establish proper communications.

"I am glad to hear it," The General replies to this with a small genuine smile after deciphering Benezzia's rough translation, he feared that this conversation would be much harder than it is currently being, "Do we have an estimated time period for the arrival of this diplomatic party?"

The Asari once again passes this message on and Remus can only try to make an educated guess as to how long it would take to mobilise the Citadel Councils first contact parties, "A few days, minimum," He tells Benezzia. In truth, history shows the Council will go above and beyond extreme measures in order to send a fleet within a day, which unusually is less time than expected for the council to send a rapid response fleet to war.

"Does this Citadel Council speak for your own species?" Asks the General, hoping to gain a clearer understanding of how the power is allocated within this council.

The answer to this question is not a straight forward yes or no, the Turian Hierarchy can operate without the Citadel Council, and can represent itself, however, in affairs such as First Contact, the Citadel Council is their representative. This is for two reasons, the first is because a collective of species all acting as one creates the image of a far more powerful organisation, it helps prevent any kind of hostilities. The second reason is because of the risk to reward ratio, the Citadel Council could impose all sorts of paralysing sanctions on a species government for not involving themselves on a first contact that has gone wrong, and first contacts as proven by the history books more often than not go wrong at some stage, usually due to a misunderstanding. The last contact to go wrong was with the Yahg where the species slaughtered the entire first contact party due to a fundamental failing on the Citadels behalf of understanding the Yahg Society. Whereas the Citadel should have sent warriors and soldiers to show their strength, in order to gain respect from the Yahg, the Citadel sent ambassadors with flowery words, which in Yahg society is an insult.

"For First Contact, they do." Remus tells the General, "But they do not command our fleets. General, may I inquire, how long has your civilisation been space capable?"

The general partially counts on his fingers before saying, "From the launch of Sputnik, 1,560 human years, or 1,836 Prothean years. Yourself?" The General uses a Prothean measure of time so that the Asari and Turian understand a 'year'. A Sol year, after all, could be any measure of time.

Hearing the numbers Remus looks to Benezzia, "How long is a Prothean year?"

It is Benezzia's turn to do the maths, "Approximately 0.8 to 1.1 Council years, we think."

The Turian taps a few of his clawed fingers on the armrest of his chair before replying to the General, "Turians have been spaceworthy almost 1,110 Prothean years. I am most curious, why have we never encountered your species before if you have been space capable for as long as claimed?" Benezzia once more translates this, but she knows with so much technical talk she is exploiting her Prothean beyond her capabilities, something she informs both Remus and the General. It is something that both already understood, however, Benezzia's translations were quite broken.

The General considers Benezzia's confession, and he knows that without a means to speak properly to the Aliens then no deals can truely be struck, the wording needs to be thoroughly understood on both sides. With this in mind, he says, "That is an excellent question Captain, a question with many long answers I suspect. A short answer, if there is such a thing, I suppose, is that we have for the longest time been content with what we already have. Now, getting down to business, we need to find a way to talk and understand one another's language. I propose we work together to create something to translate for us."

Remus flares his mandibles a little while taking off a bracelet from his arm, "Yes," He tells Benezzia, "This omni-tool contains the entire Turian and Citadel languages, with Prothean translations."

The General gratefully accepts the Turians omni-tool before nodding to someone out of the Turians line of sight, and soon a man approaches with five thick books. "5 identical books," He tells the Turian, "Each contains a human language with Prothean translations." Books are used because the Turians do not need to know how Human coding works in order to interface with a device. "Do you have books?"

Remus flares his mandibles in a way the General has quickly deduced means 'No.' "None that I am aware of, however, I will have some brought over if we find some."

"Excellent, then another parting gift," The General once again signals to someone out of sight, who then drags in a black box around the size of an old desktop printer. "A QEC comms portal. This will allow us to maintain contact. Simply press the large red button to contact us." Giving away a comms device is a dangerous risky move, if the aliens start to play with it then they could theoretically work out how human comms work, but the device is well over two hundred years old, and the most secure comms use vastly different protocols.

Captain Remus looks to one of his men, telling him that it is now his responsibility. "We thank you for your gift."

/.../

As the General speaks with the alien a few other generals and admirals have gathered in a dark room, "...50,000 men on a good day, we are arming 10,000 reserves and we have 300 mechanised armoured fighting vechs" One of the Generals says, "After a week, we could have generated a militia of 75,000 to bolster the regulars."

"Christ." An Admiral says, "We have 4,973 Marines, 15 Stealth vessels and Ultron. The auxiliary fleet is 14 cruise ships, 1 transporter and 1 colony ship."

"How much faith do you put in Ultron?" Asks another General.

"Ultron has killed 6 enemy vessels so far. How many have your men killed?"

After the quick return, there is a tense silence till the General says, "We have 15,000 ODST's, and we are mobilising 5,000 reserves as we speak."

There is another deep breath released before another General speaks, "We have 400 stealth fighters just sitting on runways awaiting our word, and 300 attack helos. It would take us months to bolster those numbers. Recent budget cuts have been harsh."

The lead General in the room looks over a map of Earth before breathing out heavily, "So, with 70,000 men we need to figure out how to defend Earth if things go down. Any idea's?" The defence of Earth has been war gamed many times before, and most in the room already know the likely answer.

An Admiral speaks, "The Fleet will draw them into Ultron, that should cut down some of their numbers if it doesn't outright destroy them."

"I have a lot of faith in Ultron," The lead man says, "But these are new threats, we must assume the worst and believe they will get past it and our planetary shielding."

"I do not believe they will come ground side," An Admiral says, "The war of Sol told us taking a planet is costly. It is my firm belief that if they get past Ultron and take out our planetary shielding, they will just bombard from orbit and request surrender."

"In such a case, we would need to dissipate all assets, make it hard to locate them. Fight a guerilla war."

The lead General nods, "Then let us war game it."

/.../

"Fleet Commander," The Intelligence officer speaks, breaking the silence on the bridge as the Fleet Commander watched in on the first contact through a camera on Captain Remus's armour. "Those that were stagging on the gas giants have forwarded a set of images you should see from their journey to rendezvous with the fleet."

"Yes." The Fleet Commander says, obviously distracted by the ongoing conversation a few hundred thousand km away from his current location. "Show me."

The Intelligence officer hands the Turian Fleet commander a data pad, containing an interesting image, "That is this solar system's star." The Intelligence officer adds, just in case the Fleet Commander does not know what a star looks like - and yes, the Intelligence Officer immediately regrets adding that comment.

The Fleet Commander looks away from the screen, showing the conversation on the alien station, and looks down to the datapad, but he keeps one ear open and listening in on the conversation. Looking at the image on the data pad the Turian brings a hand to the bottom of his jaw, "Fascinating," He says after a moment, "If this is what I believe it is, then they are mining the Star. We tried a hundred years back and failed, found gathering resources elsewhere much easier."

"The vessel also provided energy readings, should be on the next sceen."

The Fleet Commander flicks to the next screen, and after reading it his hand begins to rub his jaw some more, "Is this accurate?"

The Intelligence officer nods, "Two ships on return from the 5th planet have confirmed it. Whatever this construct is, it is generating some serious power. Even more curious is the fact we discovered 5 of them, two of which are in close proximity of the Ringworld, and one is in orbit of the planet."

"If this energy density reading is correct," The Fleet Commander begins, "One of those things alone could probably power an entire planet. Have them marked as HVT's."

"As you command. We also have images from the first and second planet in this solar system. On the next image."

Quirinus flicks to the next image and the picture takes his breath away for a moment, "This can not be real." He states.

"It is."

The Fleet Commander shakes his head a little to see if his vision is failing him, but it is not. "This entire planet has been turned into a mega city?" The Turian is currently looking at the second planet in the solar system that is now covered in gigantic cloud cities. It is something that reminds the Turian of Illium, just much larger. "By the spirits."

"These worlds are also using something similar to this planet, hiding them, the ships that scouted them out reported that from a distance, the worlds just looked like uninteresting rocks to sensors."

/.../

Tevos looks up the moment she hears a knock on her door, "Come in," She says. Soon Benezzia allows herself into the room, and the Asari councillor immediately asks, "How are the negotiations?"

"We are being taken back to the Turian fleet." Benezzia tells Tevos with some relief, "But so far all is well considering my poor Prothean. At the moment, we have agreed to pause talks till we have a more thorough understanding of one another's language."

Tevos allows a sigh of relief to escape her lips, "Thank the Goddess. Do these humans seem reasonable?"

Benezzia blinks, "So far. I don't believe we will have another Yahg situation to contend with." After taking a small pause Benezzia then adds, "Come, we must go, the Turians are waiting to take us back."

/.../

"I've been thinking," The Fleet Commander says after some time, "A lot of things this species has done just seems like hard work. Planet cities, Ring Worlds, Star Mining." The Turian pauses for a second before going on, "It makes me think, why? Why go to so much trouble unless... unless they have not got an easier solution."

"Fleet Commander?" The Fleet Orchestrator asks, hoping for the most powerful man in the fleet to clarify his thoughts.

"What if, for whatever reason, these people have not left this solar system? It would explain why they are doing things the hard way. It would also explain why they have gone to so much effort to develop stealth technologies." The man thinks some more for a second before adding, "They are using stealth maybe because they do not want to be found. If we did not go looking for the Avian we would never have found this world and its people. Their stealth was their best defence, till we found them."

"Fleet Commander, we have received the Avians crew from the Goshawk."

The Fleet Commander immediately stands, "Excellent. Have everyone briefed immediately after I greet them, I want to know if they know or witnessed anything that can give us a tactical and strategic edge. I will meet them in the 3rd cafeteria."

Soon, the Fleet Commander is looking at a bunch of weary eyes, "Your Excellency," He initially says, greeting Tevos, before moving on, "Troops, welcome to the HWV Accipitridae. We are organising accommodation for yourselves as we speak. In the meantime, we are going to be asking each and every one of you a set of questions about your time in the alien space station. Please answer to the best of your capabilities, even if you think the detail is small and unimportant. Enjoy your stay on my warship, and congratulations on making first contact."

After making his speech the Fleet Commander moves to the black box and five books gifted to Captain Remus. As he approaches them he hears someone say, "But why books."

"Books because we don't need to know how to use the technology to access what it contains," He tells them, "Quite smart in a way. Run them up to intelligence, have the books digitized and analysed."

Just as the Fleet Commander is about to lean down to inspect the black box he hears his title called, "Fleet Commander,"

The Turian stands and turns to face Tevos, "Your Excellency?"

"Thank you for coming for us," Tevos tells him, "And not starting a war in the process, but I must ask, have you secured the artefact from the Avian."

"The artefact is safe, and the men who saw it sworn to secrecy." The Fleet commander tells her, "And please, my men are just doing their job."

"Well, please tell them thank you on my behalf."

"As you command," The Fleet Commander says, "You will also be glad to hear I have sent a message to the Citadel regarding our situation."

"Then they will be here with a defence fleet within 72 hours." Tevos guesses, "And I do not wish to have so many war vessels in this species space while we try to negotiate peace and maybe more. May I request you prepare to hand over reigns to the Citadel fleet when they arrive and prepare to leave at the earliest possible moment."

"I did consider this," Quirinus tells her, "And I agree with your reasoning. I will make sure we are not in this part of space for any longer than necessary."

/.../

Earth

A short thin man looks bamboozled as he looks at the alien device which purportedly contains the ET's language. "Only means of interfacing with this thing is via networking or its inbuit interface, and I have no idea how you do either to access this alien dictionary. I mean I can do this," The man presses a button on the device and a holographic interface appears, "But what does all this gibberish mean? That set of symbols there could be settings or pressing it could be some remote to flush the loo."

"This is why we give them books," Someone says, "Guess we just have to press everything till we come across some sort of list."

After a few hours, another says, "This is bloody useless."

Another man in the room rubs his jaw, "Maybe they have done this on purpose. We give them books as an easy way to decipher our language, and they give us this. If they crack it, they can understand everything we say, while we are still sat scratching our heads. We need to fire up that QEC device and have someone ask how to use it. Dam the General for not asking when he received it."

"To be fair to the General, he was probably thinking 'don't probe my anus' for the majority of that conversation. I know I would have bottled it."

"Well, good job you weren't that General."

/.../

6 hours later

Quirinus sits up on his bed the moment a red light begins to flash. Since he slept in his armour, he leaps out of bed and immediately goes to the bridge, "Sitrep." He demands.

"Since we regrouped to advance on the new alien world, we did not have our rear guard protecting the relay. 5 Hanar whirlpools and one Vortex have entered the theatre."


	4. Chapter 4

**Alrighty, so I recieved a lot of comments last chapter, many of which regarded the low numbers in the military. I do have my reasons for doing this, some of it is due to looking at trends of militaries today - they are getting smaller - and other reasons are to do with budgets, and another reason is due to the nature of space warfare - ground wars are bloody, and most countries these days spread the news of a single soldiers death far and wide to much public horror- so I imagine precision naval bombardment from orbit would take precedent over sending boots onto the ground - Yes I know this can't be avoided thus is the reason armies still exist.). In my belief, future wars will be fought with tech over troops, much like how some of the world has fought against some recent organisations (don't want their name in my story) its been almost entirely from dropping bombs out of planes. (Yes, I know some nations have been fighting on the ground, but they have ground connected, making the situation slightly different). **

**So, then I guess the question comes up, why haven't they got a huge navy then? And the answer to this is because of doctrine, we will find Human doctrine is to build few powerful ships, over many weak ships. **

**RR**

**Chillingbear: Thanks. This chapter we will get a hint at some material science they have. **

**Azreal: The Citadel are not going to hold all the cards, trust me on that. If you are still around (Which you claim not to be) I'll answer your other stuff.**

**Orionastro: So, I have a plan for Humanities FTL, but they are still working towards it. Think energy issues.**

**Stylo1: Cheers for raising your issue with the numbers, and doing it constructively. Please see my large paragraph above, and if you want to talk about it some more please do!**

**Firehelper: All we have really seen is Earth at the moment, this humanity is more 'space' like than I may be letting on to. Cheers. **

**Kira 117: Cheers for the constructive criticism, and I am going to have to address it more, which I try to do in this chapter. If people are still not happy at the end of this, then I'll have a big think. **

**Hamilton406: Humanity in this story will have problems if they want to integrate into the Council, is all I will say. Cheers**

**deitarionSSokolow: Thanks! **

**DeeDoggo: Thanks for your PM. My initial premise is Humanity has failed to conquer FTL, not fail to have ideas. How I'm going to over come this is due to energy requirements - thus the reason why this Humanity has seemingly advanced energy production capabilities. They haven't got dense enough batteries or small enough generators to push a ship into FTL yet, but they are working on it. This was hinted at ever so slightly with the high energy density devices Quirinus marked as HVT's. **

**Guest: Yes. How many men did the allies have before WW1 broke out, and then how many did they have mid WW1? We as a species are very good at swelling our numbers during war, and bad at shrinking pre war. **

"Calamari." A drenched scientist says as he looks at a dead alien that is in the process of being stretchered away. "They smell like damn Calamari."

To the Scientist's horror, when they cracked open a disfigured alien ship they have collected from the original 6 shooting at the Avian, they were met by a wall of steam and scorching hot water, which in turn half flooded the hanger bay. No one had suspected that these aliens would live in an aqua environment, and so no precautions had been made when the door was cracked open - it was a severe oversight. Yes, some hot air had been expected to escape under pressure, since after all the ship had been hit by one of Ultron's defensive platforms, but not the wall of water. The worst part of the entire situation is that the alien crew, now thoroughly cooked in the scorching steam and water, were dragged out the ship with the escaping water and are now scattered across the hanger bay - the heat making their flesh weak has also allowed for limbs to be torn off with chunks of flesh. To any alien of this species, the sight of the hanger bay must be that from a horror movie.

"And right now you almost smell of Pork," A medic says as he approaches the Scientist who is sat on a crate, looking at the dead alien bodies with some horror, getting in front of the Scientist's vision the medic goes on to say, "I can see where your clean suit has melted from here."

The Scientist looks down to his hands, and sure enough, his plastic gloves and wellies have melted from where he got caught by the escaping water. "But large squid." He says. "Dam large smelly squid."

"Does it really surprise you?" The Medic asks as he sits down next to the burned man and begins to carefully look at the melted gloves to see if he can peel them off or if they need surgically removed. To fill in the silence, the Medic says, "They reckon up to 80% of life on Earth exists in the ocean. Probably going to be the same elsewhere. Besides, I think they look more like big stupid jellyfish."

"I would not say they are stupid," The Scientist replies, "They have FTL, we do not."

"Hmm," The Medic humms before turning to look at the ship, "They tried to toss a lump of iron at us, so we did that to them. I think they were punching above their weight class, and that makes them stupid to me."

The Scientist also turns to look at the ship; its hull is a shadow of what it once was, Ultron's plasma weaponry having done a real number to it by melting its many features. "And how much tech do you think has survived this 'pan boil'? The bloody bone heads have probably melted everything of importance with their damn weapons."

"Our primary concern should always be protecting our people, and their technology a secondary concern." The Medic tells him, "And your lucky, it looks like your burns are nothing to be worried about, an application of omni-gel, and you will be on your way in no time."

After ten minutes for the Medic to apply the required lotions, the Scientist stands, "Well, I guess I should be getting to work. This FTL core won't study itself. Thanks, doc."

/.../

The President looks to his military advisors, "Give it to me straight," He eventually says after a prolonged silence, knowing from their face that the men are not going to give him information that he will like.

There is a small pause as all three advisors give a brief glance to one another, and eventually, the lead man and highest ranking advisor says, "If the Turians defeat Ultron and manage to land, we don't have enough men to defend the planet."

"How many do we have?"

"Local to Earth we have 70,000 augments." The lead man replies, "Mars has an estimated 900,000 men on call bolstered by 5,000 augments, Venus 1.1 Mil regular and 0.4 mil reserves, aided by 5,000 augments, Mercury has on last report 120,000 men, Titan has 700,000 regular and 1,500 augments, our ringworld has 15,000 augments and a further 20,000 regular. Europa and Io combined have a further 10,000 augments between them. At this very moment, we are mobilising all reserves, and creating militias, the same can be said for each of our colonies."

The President knew that Earths armed forces had taken serious and drastic cuts in order to fund other defences, but he never imagined the numbers to be so low when compared to the other colonies. "How many do we need?"

"To defend Earth from attack by unknown numbers? 1.5 million men minimum, with augments, we can reduce that to 750,000." Augments, such as those found in the Marines, are enhanced with extreme genetic upgrades and technology, they are capable of far more than a standard human. Their Achilles heel, so to speak, is their lack of numbers, one augment is equal to three or more humans in combat, but like a standard human, they can't defend two or more places at once. In addition to having a severe lack of augments, training them takes time too, a child is selected at a young age and is conditioned over their entire lives to serve, and most who are chosen do not survive the brutal training regime. To be selected, a child must have certain genetic and mental traits that allow them to accept the extensive genetic modification and training required to be called an augment.

"But, with what we have, and without mobilising reserves or militia, we can defend several major cities and some infrastructure."

The President nods in reluctance, "Then please tell me our investment into Ultron and our planetary shield has been worth it." In order to fund Ultron and the planetary shield, most of the budget came from the four branches of Earth's military, thus their recent drastic budget cuts. Because the other planets and governments in Sol have not invested in a similar system as Ultron, or as heavily into Augments, their militaries are far larger.

A second advisor speaks, "In all our war games, the combined forces of this entire solar system fails to reach Earth, Ultron kept them back every single time. In a purely human war, Ultron was more than worth it. As for the planetary shield, it can hold human assets back for a considerable time - up to four weeks, which is long enough for us to muster additional men." Despite the war games pitting Sol against Earth, Humanity is fiercely defensive of their homeworld after the War of Sol almost ruined her.

The President takes small refuge in this comment, but then he must think of those not on Earth. "What if they invade Mars? Io? Or any other planet in our solar system?"

"The other planets do not have Ultron, and we lack the vessels to mount a protracted naval battle, so, it will be a ground defensive. In this situation, we will use our stealth vessels to pester supply lines and ensure the war ground side is too expensive to win. We are still waiting for military assessments from the respective planets as to how those ground defensives will work." Using the stealth vessels to pester supply lines worked incredibly well in the War of Sol, resulting in numerous forces having to retreat from certain theatres.

The President drags a heavy hand down his face as he wonders how a military-heavy 29th-century humanity would have coped. Back then, before the War of Sol, every planet and colony had hundreds of thousands of men on call, every world had a navy and a defence network. Truthfully, it still amazes the President that any world survived the war of the 29th Century.

Hearing a man rush into the room, the President turns away from his advisors and looks to yet another General. "Mr President," The man salutes before carrying on, "We have detected a further six contacts entering our system from the object orbiting Pluto. Hull design paints them with the hostile aliens."

/.../

Quirinus turns and stands from his chair as both Benezzia and Councillor Tevos arrives on his bridge at the same moment, the duo having walked together from their accommodation. "Councillor, Matriarch," He greets with a Turian salute, showing the Councillor the respect that is required.

"Fleet Commander," Tevos returns, acknowledging his position before adding, "Your men have been most sparse with information as to why we have entered red alert, and if I am not mistaken, red alert on a Higherarchy vessel means a battle is imminent and ensured." Tevos has deep fears that something has happened between the new aliens and these Turians.

"You would be correct." The Fleet Commander says as he takes a few steps towards the only two Asari on his bridge. "We have identified 6 Hanar vessels entering this system, with what I must presume is hostile intent. My Fleet is preparing for battle as we speak."

"Fleet Commander," Tevos says with some verbal emphasis on his rank to show she respects it, which she does, getting to the rank of Fleet Commander in the Turian navy is no easy feat. "We are in the middle of a First Contact with an agreeable species; now I appreciate you must protect your vessels, as I would expect any good Turian Fleet Commander would, however, I can not let you go on a ruthless hunt with so little thought into the consequences."

The Turian gives his species equivalent of a nod, "Yes. I concur we can not do our typical, thus is the reason I requested yourself Matriarch Benezzia." The Fleet Commander turns to the second Asari, "Captain Corvinius and Captain Remus assured me that you have been our middle Asari in all conversations with our Humans. I was hoping you could advise them on our military actions."

"Fleet Commander, I believe you fail to understand, I can not have you initiating hostile intent. We can not let this species below see us as the aggressors."

Quirinus turns to look once more at the Asari, but before he replies he takes a deep breath in and out, "Ma'am if you had waited for my plan, you would see that I do not intend on hunting the Hanar. I plan to turn our fleets to face the threat and re-arrange our formation to better spring into action against 5 Whirlpools and 1 Vortex, should they be bold enough to attack. If these Humans have any military men down on their planet, and they see this, I can assure you that they will be questioning our actions. I need Matriarch Benezzia to explain our intent."

"While they are so far from our fleet is such action required?"

"Councillor, the last thing you want is anything to happen, now there is a universal saying in my business from ground troops to naval crew, and it is this, if you look like you are ready for a fight, then they won't want to fight. "

/.../

Citadel -

To a Salarian, there is little more relaxing than a replenishing hot mud bath; the mud provides their skin vital nutrients and minerals required to stay healthy, and the warm nature of the baths warm their blood to comfortable temperatures, something which any Salarian on the Citadel can appreciate. When the Salarians first met the Asari, it was quickly realised that the two find comfort at different temperatures, where as the Asari liked it at around 298 Kelvin, the Salarians like it much hotter at around 323 Kelvin. Finding a compromise in temperature was attempted, but as the Asari were far more numerous and possessed more facilities, in particular, the Citadel, the working temperature is that of the Asari. It is for this very reason why most Salarians can be seen to wear thick clothing, it is because to them, the Citadel and most none Salarian worlds are merely cold.

After taking a sip of a traditional Salarian herbal drink, which in reality could be described as muddy water with some plants native to Sur'Kesh ground up and added, Councillor Valern allows his body to slump further into the bath. This week has been most stressful for him, with news of the Prothean artefact, induction of a new spectre, attack on Councillor Tevos and elections back on Sur'Kesh, in which he only barely kept his job, he feels like a little r&r is required.

Closing his eyes, Valern takes a few deep calming breaths, and savours the moment, his work with the Spectre is done, a Turian peacekeeping fleet is rescuing his colleague, and he no longer needs to campaign to keep his job. Next week should be easy for him, well, nothing is ever easy as a councillor but it should be easier than last week. The Councillor works himself into such bliss in his mud bath he barely hears his assistant enter the room.

/.../

"Glory, glory, what a hell of a way to serve," Sings the Turian Councillor to himself with some cheer as he attempts to make his dress uniform perfect in a mirror. Tonight is going to be a good night for the Turian Councillor, for tonight he unofficially welcomes a new Turian into the Ranks of the Spectres, something which is bound to be messy and alcohol heavy- it always is. After fastening a latch on his uniform he continues to sing in a buoyant manner, "In the line of duty with a rifle by your side."

Hearing a door open behind him Sparatus looks into the mirror to see who has entered the room. Seeing it to be one of his more trusted aides, he says, "Ah, Tatius, how do I look?" As he speaks he turns to allow the Turian a view of his dress uniform from the front - he hopes she likes what she sees.

"Impeccable," The aid replies after a second to look the councillor up and down, searching for anything out of place, "But I have come with a priority 1 message from our fleet sent to rescue the honourable Councillor Tevos."

Sparatus instantly clears the cheer from his face, a priority level 1 message is never good news, or at least in his years serving as a councillor, he has never had good news from a level 1 message. "Is she...?" It's the most logical conclusion the Councillor can make.

"Unconfirmed, your Excellency. Fleet Commander Quirinus has sent word of a First Contact. I have his initial report, Sir."

It takes Sparatus a second to compute the words before holding his hand out for the data pad with the report. Getting the report he reads aloud, "New species discovered at grid..." The Councillor can't be hassled with reading out the long string of numbers associated with the grid, "... Attempting contact, wait out."

Sparatus can feel his blood rushing to leave his outer skin, a biological response to when feeling threatened - in order to prevent severe blood loss from surface cuts when in battle. Sparatus quickly concludes that he will not be attending tonights unofficial dine in of the new Spectre. "Tatius, when did we receive this?"

Tatius checks the time before saying, "7 minutes ago."

Sparatus taps the data pad a few times with his clawed fingers before saying, "Call everyone back to the office, cancel all appointments for the next week, and arrange a call with the Primarch for as soon as possible, then a meeting with Valern and Irissa, Tevos' temporary stand-in. Have everyone who works on this information surrender their omni-tools, and sworn to secrecy till the news is offically released to the public." News of First Contact can have devastating consequences throughout the civilised galaxy, so the Turian Councillor wishes to suppress the report for as long as possible.

/.../

Cnidaria - Hanar Vortex

A Hanar Vortex is not a typical Hanar ship by any stretch of the imagination, its atmosphere is gaseous, and its ergonomics are designed for land creatures. Its crew is also far from usual, instead of a Hanar compliment, the vessel is mostly manned by Turian and Krogan Mercenaries and an outfit of Drell superiors who are loyal to the Hanar cause. The Vortex is also not a traditional warfighting vessel; instead, it could be seen as a transport ship, shuttling ground teams to where they are needed. In combat, the Vortex can take shots that would gut most other vessels, but its offensive capabilities are severely limited.

The moment they drop out of the relay the six Hanar vessels begin their scans of the system, but other than a few planets, nothing is found, no Forward fleet sent to intercept the Avian, no Turian reinforcements, no nothing. The Hanar fleet, however, knows that the Turians came through this relay, and have not left yet, so, they conclude they must return sooner or later. With this in mind, the 6 Hanar vessels begin advancing towards a Gas Giant, to hide in its thick atmosphere. No one on the Hanar vessels knows yet what they are to do when they come across the Turians, they know they will be outgunned, and more than likely outclassed by battle-hardened crews, but Hanar can be dangerously crafty when they put their minds to something.

/.../

1 Hour later - Citadel

Irissa looks around the small room where all three representatives of the Council have gathered, each already knows the reason behind the meeting, all having received the news from their assistants. "The Union is making ready a detail of surveillance ships," Valern begins, "Our third fleet has also begun the process of preparing for deployment."

Sparatus flares his mandibles downwards, "Yes. The Primarch is sending the third, tenth, fourteenth and 21st fleet under the command of Faunnus Cardeus to assist Fleet Commander Quirinus, so that's an additional 124 vessels."

"Heavy response," Valern replies almost immediately. "That would make the total Turian ship count 155, of which 6 are notable Dreadnoughts. Including the Salarian response that would be 169 ships and 7 Dreadnoughts, and if we include the Citadel emissary vessel, 170 ships, 7 Dreadnoughts. All this under the command of the Great Faunnus is a potent battle group, Irissa, what do you suspect the Republics will provide?"

Irissa takes a second before saying, "The Republics will ready vessels, but I do not believe they will send any to war prematurely. I must also voice my concern for sending such a heavy presence, the Citadel can not spare sending such a high volume of Dreadnoughts to one sector of space, and nor can we risk initiating hostilities by appearing like we are preparing for war."

Valern speaks before Sparatus can even open his mouth, "The Salarian Union prefers to end wars before they even begin. If this is a first contact, the new species is unlikely to have considerable assets, or we would have discovered them sooner. A heavy presence will deter hostilities."

The Turian councillor slips in his own thoughts immediately after Valern, "The Primarch also does not wish for a reoccurrence of the Rachni on our watch. Our fleet numbers are non-negotiable." This statement should surprise no one, whenever there is a First Contact, history shows the Turians are without exception heavy-handed in their response.

Irissa looks among the two others in the room before blinking, "Then I see I would be outvoted if it comes to it."

Sparatus flares his mandibles, showing he acknowledges her acceptance of their plans, "The Hierarchy does, however, call for involvement from all three species, we would come across as a stronger front."

Irissa taps the table before accepting defeat, "I will inform the Matriarchs of your application for a combined fleet, however, do not expect any more than the Forward Containment fleet." Sparatus does some quick thinking, the Forward Containment Fleet is a considerable fleet, commanded by an old Asari Matriarch who is experienced in the art of war, making it a fleet he would not like to face in combat, meaning it will certainly add extra umph to any task force.

"Excellent," Sparatus then says, "Then we will need to address the fact that sending such a fleet will raise questions. People will think we are going to war, the Terminus systems especially. Stock markets will likely plummet..."

Valern does not let the Turian finish, "We inform when we know..." Seeing an assistant walk into the room Valern pauses for a second before finishing, "...If we are at war. For the stock markets, we can employ a certain Volus organisation to manage damages, however, before we discuss any more on such issues, it appears as if we also have an update."

This is the assistant's queue to hand the three in the room a data pad each, the tablets contain images sent from Quirinus's fleet. It does not take long for the three to unlock the devices and flick through the images, but one particular image has Sparatus captured, "Circumference 5,000km," He says with some uncertainty after seeing a picture of the Ring World above the alien planet, "Spectrology seems to suggest the ringworld is made from the same materials the Citadel is made from. Spirits."

The three look up from their data pads and to one another, allowing Irissa to say, "Could it be...?"

"Prothean?" Valern answers, "Strong possibility, no other species has managed to recreate the metal in vast quantities." It is a common misconception that the Citadel species do not know how to make the fabled Prothean metal, in truth, they do know how to make it, just the cost of doing so is eye-watering high - making it unfeasible to have any large constructs such as ships made from the metal.

Sparatus takes a deep breath before saying, "What concerns me more is that no one in the Turian fleet will understand these spectrology readings." A rapid response fleet such as that commanded by Quirinus has little need for a spectrology expert - they are not expected to mine or do any work which requires such an expert - instead, they are expected to scrap it out. "They will not know that this station is likely to be Prothean, so will likely underestimate its defences. In any case, this must change our response. If this world is Prothean, then we must find a way to involve this species, if it is not Prothean, but their own construct, then they are far more dangerous, they could have warships made from it."

"A horrifying thought."

/.../

"Fleet commander," A voice calls and Quirinus looks up from his console, "We have detected another 4 stealth ships."

Every now and then, at irregular intervals, his vessels would detect a small formation of stealth ships uncloaking for a split second, they would be far enough away not to cause concern, but close enough to continually remind the Turian they are out there. They would also appear at random locations as if they have arrived at this planet from elsewhere. If he added up all the stealth vessel appearances, he would guess that this species has at least 50 of them, if not more.

Of course, he has also considered that the aliens may have far less, they could have as few as six and are using the same six to make it appear as if they have far more by having them 'arrive' at different locations. In a way, it could be deception; these people could be deceiving him into thinking they have way more than they have, and unless they all uncloak at the same time, he would never know otherwise.

The Fleet Commander can't help but appreciate the potential tactic to deceive him, and the whole idea thrills him, this situation, as deadly as it could be, is exciting and refreshing - This is why he will not take up a job in HQ, advising the politicians, he would miss days like these.

Quirinus current work, however, is not concerning the stealth vessels; instead, it is focusing on the known red forces, the Hanar - but he has not forgotten the stealth vessels entirely - he has others with scientific and engineering minds attempting to figure out how to detect them. His own work has been reading up on reports relating to how the Hanar use Vortex's, and so far he has read nothing outside of the ship being used to launch ground troops, or boarding parties. Usually, the Turian would not be worried about this ship, it is mostly harmless in space, but considering his cargo, he firmly believes the Hanar will go out their way to get men onto his ship. It is for this reason he had the Prothean artefact transferred to a destroyer not ten minutes ago. He knows, however, the Hanar if they are watching will have likely sussed this ruse out, so he sent the shuttlecraft carrying the Prothean artefact to every Turian vessel to dock for ten minutes - because he too can use deception. He also believes if the Hanar are not certain where the item is, then they will not launch a raiding party - never mind raiding the wrong ship.

The Fleet Commander has also been wondering how the Hanar would get men aboard his vessel, and so far, he believes they will go for a mix of mines around the relay to confuse and a lightning attack to dazzle, allowing the Vortex to slip in. He knows that once the Vortex is docked, it is latched on and he will have no option but to fight them off on his own vessel - and considering Vortex's are known to carry Krogan, this is not something he looks forward to.

The Humans had taken to the news of the Hanar quite well thankfully, however, he suspects from their lack of surprise they already knew about them. Their main concern was that whatever quarrel his own people and the Hanar have, that it doesn't come to their worlds again, and they will provide no assistance to either fleet unless one proves to be a threat to them. Quirinus did raise the possibility of working together to make sure nothing came to their world, but the aliens refused, not that Quirinus truly expected any other answer. Yes, his own people and the aliens have talked a little, in a language his people barely understand, but the aliens still on the grand scale of things, know nothing about his own people or these Hanar pirates, to the aliens, his own people could just as likely be the pirates and the Hanar could also be the peacekeepers.

/.../

Citadel

"Alright, let us hear it," Irissa says as Sparatus leans forward and presses play, causing an image of a Turian to appear on a holo projector.

"To whoever is watching this, this is my last log as captain of the CV Avian. My vessel has taken heavy damage from Hanar Whirlpools and needs to be evacuated. I have given the order for my crew and all! Asari workers to join our new alien friends on their stealth vessel. I made this choice freely and was not coerced into making such a choice. Like how Xiavia was forced to flee to higher ground when the oceans rose, I suppose. As far as I know, my people are to head back to their world, the third planet in this solar system, but we are yet to establish any proper means of communication. I should inform any Citadel affiliated vessel, however, that they are being watched, and are in the range of powerful weapons. We do not know the weapons nature, only their power, and they are capable of eliminating Hanar Whirlpools with a single shot.

Spirits providing, this is helpful information, and I shall see my family soon. Spirits be with you."

As soon as the recording of the Turian captain of the CV Avian stops Valern speaks, "Species willing to rescue stranded crew, initial impressions promising."

"Indeed," Sparatus muses, "However, I am concerned, we have seen their Ringworld, and now we have news they are capable of eliminating Hanar Whirlpools with a single shot and have stealth vessels. This species is war capable."

"What would it require to take down a Whirlpool with one shot?" Asks Irissa.

Valern replies, having recently read an STG report on Hanar Vortex's to calculate the probability of Councilor Tevos being rescued, "One shot? Any standard Turian Dreadnought from the last 50 years."

"So, we can conclude they at least have dreadnoughts," Sparatus says. "Maybe 7 of our Dreadnoughts is a little low."

"No." Irissa shoots the Turian down, "We know they have ships with Dreadnought levels of power, and we know they have stealth ships, that is all - however, I agree that the threat is larger than we initially anticipated, and I will inform the Matriarchs."

"The Union will increase the number of surveillance ships available. We will also release data from our own work on stealth detection so your fleet has an increased chance of detecting the stealth vessels."

The Turian Councilor flares his mandibles a little, happy with the Salarian agreeing to release some information on stealth detection, "Fantastic news. Now, the report sent in with this video also tells us they have recovered the artefact."

"Glad to hear it is intact," Valern says, "But more pressing concerns to contend with at the moment. Councillor Tevos whereabouts not yet ascertained."

"I believe," Sparatus says, "That the Councillor has been taken with the rest of the Avian's crew. I say this because of how Captain Corvinus emphasised 'All! Asari workers', it makes me believe Tevos was among them."

"But not confirmed," Irissa says, "But as much as it pains me to admit it, we must focus on first contact, and not the fate of one Asari."

/.../

Uranus- Cnidaria - Hanar Vortex - 2 hours after entering the local system

Urdnot Wreav spins a knife between his fingers as he looks at a young Krogan that has barely passed his rite of passage, the young Krogan is broody, and hormonal, making him territorial and aggressive. This behaviour, however, is to be expected with any young Krogan, and Wreav knows the young Krogan will need put into his place sooner or later - Something Urdnot Wreav is more than happy to do. Hearing a door to the bridge swoosh open the battle experienced Krogan looks up and sees one of the Hanar slaves - a Drell - walk in. "Your attention." The Drell says, gaining the attention of all 37 in the room.

With all eyes on him, the Drell goes on, "We have discovered an unidentified space station in this gas giant, all attempts to hail it has failed, and there are no windows to indicate if anyone is alive on board." Damn, Wreav hates how straight back and formal this Drell is. "We are to go aboard and establish who this station belongs to. Our docks are not compatible so we will be cutting a hole in this stations hull."

"What if we discover something we ain't seen before?" Wreav asks, knowing that his is now in uncharted space.

The Drell turns to look at him before replying, "Your employers do not wish for unwanted violence, they are not violent people. You will secure the area, and one of your employee representatives will come to establish communications."

"Sure," Wreav replies with a shrug of his shoulders, not thinking to ask exactly what the Drell meant.

**Alright, I have some slightly bad news. I'm supposed to be sent out into the sticks again mid month till mid august. I don't know if I can update in this period so if I do, great, if not, sorry, but in my down time I should have been able to write for this so should** be able to update the second im back into civilisation. Cheers for putting up with all my away time. **


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm Back! Back into lovely civilisation! You really do forget how good fresh food is when living on survivable's for a few months..**

**Anyway, my normal review response will come next chapter, at the moment I'm knackered and seriously jet lagged, and was just wanting to get this out at around a date when promised last chapter. **

**It may be a little error prone if you're an early bird but I'll get that when I wake up tomorrow sometime. **

**Cheers for your understanding!**

/.../

Citadel: Asari Councillor's Office

Irissa paces back and forth in front of her office's window as she studies a datapad with new information regarding the first contact currently underway. According to the datapad, the unknown aliens have fired a warning shot at the fleet, but this is not what concerns her, instead, it is what the warning shot consisted of that worries her.

"You are going to wear your carpet out," A wise sounding voice says.

Irissa sighs before stopping at her desk to half throw, half place the datapad down onto the table. With the troublesome datapad no longer in her hands, Irissa looks to another Asari who is in the room with her and asks, "What is the potential of Plasma weaponry?"

Lidanya, the Matriarch in charge of the Citadel Defence Fleet turns the datapad around and looks at the fleets recording of the Plasma Weapon, paying particular attention to the shots statistics. The Matriarch takes a moment before replying, "Plasma-based weaponry will be potent to any vessel in our fleet, and if these readings regarding the plasma shot are accurate, our shields will be rendered inert." Lidanya is the second most experienced Admiral in the whole Asari fleet, the most experienced protects the Asari crown jewel, Thessia.

Irissa breaths out a deep sigh, "What do you make of this species?" She then asks?

Lidanya has been privy to all the information Quirinus has sent, "Personally, I do not believe we have enough information to start making any judgements."

"But from what we have seen?"

"I could make many assumptions from what we have seen," Lidanya replies, "But most will be wrong; therefore it would be unwise to act on any feelings I may, or may not have about the situation."

"I suppose you are correct," Irissa says reluctantly, "But, do you think we are making the right decision to send just shy of 200 war vessels?"

"That depends on what Fannus decides to do with them," Lidanya says with a knowing tone to her voice, "If he charges in like a Krogan mid blood lust, then yes, we will see blood; however, I do not believe Faunnus Cardeus is that type of Turian. If he, which I suspect he will, quarantines the relay on our side and only sends through a small selection of vessels, then things will go smoothly."

"Then we should dictate that he..."

Lidanya begins to smile, which causes Irissa to stop speaking, and allows Lidanya to speak, "In war, too many military disasters can be traced to politicians interfering with their military commanders, and issuing them ill-considered military orders they are not qualified to give. Yes, we can ask Cardeus to try and not cause a war through mindless violence; however, we should not attempt to command his strategy." Lidanya still remembers losing too many friends due to this reason during the Krogan Rebellions.

Seeing a young Asari assistant walk in with yet another datapad Irissa holds her hand out, and soon she is saying, "It is now confirmed these aliens have stealth vessels made from the Prothea." Prothea is the fabled Prothean material that makes the citadel. "So I will bet my left hand the Turians will demand more ships for their battle group." Irissia is coming to hate these datapad updates on the situation, they are rarely delivering good news.

Lidanya stands still for a moment as she begins to think, and with some thoughts in mind she pronounces, "I must concur that this latest development is concerning, and I would advise informing the Matriarchs that preparing vessels would not be a bad idea, however, I wish to speak with Cardeus first."

/.../

The Great Faunnus Cardeus is known to all who know of him as a man of great focus, commitment, and sheer will. It is said that he once destroyed a Batarian dreadnought with nothing more than a lone frigate, and to most who know him, they would not question it. When children check under their beds for Batarian Slavers, the slavers check the darkest corners of space for the great Faunnus Cardeus. It is for this very reason why Faunnus is one of the Primarchs Chosen, a small but elite selection of Turians with an exceptional skill set, who are sent on missions that simply can not fail. They are called the Primarchs Chosen because the Primarch himself appointed them into the position and to most Turians, this title is more fabled than the elite Spectres. Yes, to be chosen by the council to serve their will also demands great respect, but to be selected by the Primarch to serve as his right hand? That to most Turians, who have an almost fanatical devotion to the Primarch, is a different story altogether. It is for this reason why Cardeus has his very own dreadnought, the HWV Cardeus, named after himself. Cardeus's dreadnought looks like any other Turian dreadnought, to prevent it being targeted in battle, but it has some subtle differences. Most notably, the HWV Cardeus lacks ground assets, which allows more space to add extra armour and higher capacity communication assets.

The great Turian can often be found in the library of the HWV Cardeus when not deployed, or in the C3, also known as the Combat Command Centre when deployed. He is very rarely found on the bridge, for that is not where he works; instead, he leaves the bridge to the Fleet Commander and ships Captain - he does not need their work to distract him from his own. In the C3 the Primarchs Chosen has a selection of handpicked crew to man the numerous stations, ranging from intelligence officers to a previously retired Fleet Commander to role play red forces.

Sitting at an unassuming desk in the corner of the C3 is the Turian himself, a hot drink in one hand and datapad in another hand, but most would not assume it. The fabled Turian is short, 5 foot 11 to be precise, 2 inches shorter than the average turian, his eyes do not glow red with the Primarchs wrath and his claws aren't any longer than a normal Turians- no, he looks just like a normal, but short, Turian. Currently, the HWV Cardeus is travelling with its escort of 31 vessels to the Citadel to rendezvous with the rest of the force mustered by the Citadel Species, giving the Primarchs Chosen time to think. He has received the initial reports from Fleet Commander Quirinus, but without really knowing the Turian Fleet Commander Cardeus cannot trust his beliefs of the aliens capabilities, so it is for this reason he has been studying Quirinus's record, and so far the Primarchs Chosen is mildly impressed, allowing him some faith of Quirinus assessment of the situation.

"Faunnus," An intelligence officer speaks, calling to the Primarch's Chosen by his first name, something the Turian only allows in the C3. "We have a new report forwarded to us by the Council."

"Please," Faunnus says as he holds a hand out for the report and soon the Turian is reading over a new report. "Our fears have been confirmed, we can confirm the existence of stealth vessels made with Prothean Metal Prothea." He reads from the report to himself to help remember what the report mentions as he flicks over to a new page which has three pictures attached to it of the Stealth vessels. One of the designs is a classic design for a stealth vessel, or so Faunnus thinks, it is that of a predator, designed to destroy ships without ever revealing its location, the next is a different design, looks more blocky and he may even guess armed with heavier equipment, something designed to slog it out. The third and final stealth design, however, has him puzzled, it is 400m long and has no apparent weapons, its nature to him is uncertain, which makes the vessel all that more dangerous, because if he doesn't know how it will fight, how can he prepare to fight it? Faunnus feels a shiver run up his body, this entire situation, how tremendously exciting.

/.../

Uranus Mine Sevastapol

Cutting through the metal on the alien station had proven to take far longer than usual, meaning whatever metal this station is made from, it was tough stuff, more robust than the armour on the most modern of Turian dreadnoughts. Hearing the slab of station cut away to allow himself entry onto the station fall and slam into something solid, most likely the floor inside the space station, Wreav primes his claymore, ready to storm the station.

"Atmosphere stable," Someone calls out, "It's breathable."

Wreav suppresses a grin as he removes his helmet, he hates it when he has to wear a breather, the wretched thing restricts his sight, breathing and hearing - he often compares it to having his head in a fishbowl.

"Door opening in 5...4...3...2...1...Door opening."

As soon as the door that separates the alien station and the Hanar vortex opens 20 Krogan storm through, their barriers powered and shotguns at the ready, but no rounds are fired, much to the Krogans displeasure. Inside the room they have cut in to, they find a single alien awaiting them, it appears like a short Asari, wrong colour however and a weird snow white fur on its head, its eyes also glow a mysterious purple too. With the room secured the Krogan turn their attention to the bizarre alien, approaching it in an almost threatening way, but Wreav pulls the Krogan back and away from the Alien. "This station ain't secure yet." He complains to them, "And this thing ain't armed. We got two doors out of this room, you ten take that door, we will take the second. You, young'in, keep an eye on it."

As soon as the Krogan move to enter the rest of the station the until now silent alien shouts something, which Wreav assumes to mean 'No', but he doesn't care, he is to secure the station as per his orders. Storming through another room, the aged Krogan comes across what must be a kitchen, where there are a few childish paintings pinned to a board and some half-eaten food in five dishes. Four more aliens, Wreav assumes from the half-eaten dishes, but after a thorough search of the station which looks like it's purpose is for mining something, Wreav finds no others, prompting him to tell the Varren holders to come aboard - his nose is good, but not Varren good.

Meanwhile, Ava watches as the enormous aliens stomp around her station, she has figured they are looking for the Human crew, but they will never find them, she ensured they were hidden safely in a cargo crate before going to greet the aliens. Had she had more time, she would have cleaned all the dishes and hidden evidence there was any Human crew, but it is what it is. Feeling a hand grab her shoulder, she complies with the huge alien that drags her to the kitchen, pointing at the dishes. Ava quickly realises what the Alien wants, but she does not comply; instead, she just speaks some gibberish in the hopes they will drop it. The aliens search tirelessly for 5 hours before one of the huge aliens pushes her into a chair and a second alien species comes onboard and sits opposite her.

/.../

"Primarchs Chosen, you have a call from Matriarch Lidanya."

Faunnus eyes light up hearing this and he places his hot drink down as he turns on a monitor and accepts the call. Seeing the Asari appear on his screen, Faunnus grins, "Matriarch, it is always a pleasure."

Matriarch Lidanya allows a small smile to creep out as she says, "Primarchs Chosen, I have heard you have a new mission taking you to a small dark corner of space."

"So you know?" Faunnus allows a second for the Asari to blink her confirmation, "Suppose you would. How is your family?"

"Well thank you, Eris has recently been promoted to the executive officer of the AEV Nymphaea, a deep space exploration vessel." Lidanya allows for a second before going on, "But I call not for a friendly chat, my people are worried about how you plan to tackle the current situation. Sending just shy of 200 vessels into a new species system is not sitting well with the Matriarchs."

"Yes," Faunnus scratches his left mandible as he thinks, it is a bad habit he has never managed to see the back of, "I have considered such myself. My plan is to simply sit on our side of the relay, and only send through the citadel envoy vessel and a small security detail of seven ships. I am thoroughly going to utilise the saying, out of sight, out of mind. Will the Destiny Ascension be joining us?"

Lidanya blinks, confirming to the Turian that the ship will be his to command, "They are clearing it for departure now; however I will not be joining you, my duties are at the Citadel. But I am glad to hear we are thinking along similar ideas for the current situation."

"I imagine my plan will put the Matriarchs at rest," Faunnus says, "But it is a shame you can't join us, I quite enjoyed thrashing ideas with you last time we tangoed."

This causes Lidanya to smirk a little, before saying, "Come back in one piece, and I am sure there will be time for you to pass ideas by me on the citadel. Lidanya out."

Seeing the image cut, Faunnus leans back in his chair and allows happy memories to take over for a short time. Matriarch Lidanya is one of the only people to escape his grasp continuously in a war game, but he is more than ready to reclaim his honour by capturing her next time.

/.../

A General looks to another, "They didn't get any humans, just a Hyperdyne Systems model 341-B and scavenged some old computers. We, on the other hand, have now identified 2 new species, one currently known as 'Walking tank', and the other as 'tall frog'."

"What are we going to do about it?"

The first General breaths out before saying, "The 341-B has a QEC inbuilt and it is uploading its visual and audio feed, so we are going to let it go, see what we can learn from it." Ideally, the General would not want the aliens to get a hold of a 341-B, fearing they could reap its technology; however, the information it could provide will be invaluable.

The second General nods before asking, "What will they get from the old computers?"

The first shrugs, "Nothing interesting, just some personal logs and mining information. Pretty much unusable data."

The second seems rather pleased with this information, "Then I guess this is what we call a fair trade. So long as they don't realise that they have a 341-B, all they get is some old most likely half-broken machines, and we get some solid intel from the inside."

/.../

Uranus

"So, what now?" Asks a young blood Krogan as himself and Wreav escorts the new alien back to the Vortex, both disappointed with what they found on the alien station.

Wreav shrugs his massive shoulders before responding, "Suppose we high tail it back to friendly space."

"The jobs still out here." The young Krogan complains to the old war dog, "This changes nothing."

"If you think that you're more stupid than you look," Wreav replies, "Think about it, why don't you think we have found the Turian fleet? The answer is that they have probably run into these guys, then done themselves something stupid, meaning you can bet your small quad the Citadel is sending a containment fleet as we speak. That's hundreds of vessels, kid, a full-blown battle group with numerous dreadnoughts, and trust me, we ain't surviving that encounter."

The young blood is quiet for a bit as he mulls over the older Krogan's words till asking, "What you reckon will happen to this thing? Looks soft and squishy, not worth putting in the varren pit."

Wreav had been thinking about this very question, and he has come to his own conclusion, "It ain't no use to us, we can't understand a thing it says, so I reckon it will be sold to the Slaving Circles, that way we clean our hands of it." Wreav personally thinks they should shoot it out the airlock; however, the Hanar need to keep the pretence that this is a pirate fleet, and so they need to act more like pirates, and pirates don't just go spacing their loot.

Getting to the holding cells onboard the Vortex Wreav slams a button on the wall and a door begins to open, only for a young Asari to jump out and attempt to run, however, Wreav had anticipated the act and slams a fist into the Asari's face, resulting in a sickening crack and one unconscious Asari. Grabbing the now unconscious Asari on the floor by the leg the young Krogan drags it back into the holding cell before Wreav shoves Ava inside too.

Getting inside the holding pen Ava looks around, searching for anything of interest before turning her attention to the Asari laying on the floor, and while Ava is by no means an expert on aliens, she suspects the blue alien is young. Ava makes this judgement based on the facial features of the blue alien, if it were a human, on facial features alone, she would guess it is around 16. Kneeling down, she begins to inspect the Asari, and finds it to have a broken nose, and two deep gashes on its face from the Krogans fist. Taking her WY branded jumper off and tearing off a sleave, Ava begins to press the sleeve over the wounds in the hopes that it will help stop the blood. After some contemplation, Ava decides not to fix the nose, she does not know the alien's biology so she does not know if fixing the nose as if the Asari is a human would do more damage or not. If Ava was also privy to the information, she would realise that this Asari is wearing the uniform of a Citadel navy personnel.

/.../

Citadel: Council Observation Tower

Sparatus stands with his hands folded neatly behind his back as he looks out into space, to his right is Councillor Valern, and to his left Irissa. The three representatives all stand quietly, looking at the huge fleet massed and floating in space just outside the citadel, by now it is almost impossible to hide the fact that something big is happening, and people are asking questions. Seeing the tell tale blue flash of ships entering FTL Sparatus says, "Spirits be with them."

"And may the Goddess guide them," Irissa says, "But for now, we need to address the rumours."

"No," Valern says as he turns from viewing the fleet enter FTL, "The voices asking questions have been getting quite loud, but must insist we keep to our original plan, only inform once we know."

"Hmm, how long till the fleet gets to the location?" Irissa asks Sparatus, knowing the man is more than likely going to have the answer on the top of his head. Sparatus may not be the best with diplomacy, remembering names, faces and random political articles, but he does know his military facts.

"2 days at maximum velocity." As the number of ships jumping into FTL dwindles, Sparatus also turns around, "But for now, we need to have a plan for war, and peace."

"Yes," Valern replies, "Plan for worst, hope for best. The union is activating assets required for a protracted war. News of ships made from Prothea has disturbed many in the Union."

"Same with the Hierarchy, we are lighting the fires in old forges and powering up redundant munition factories. Our old dockyards are also undergoing inspections while mines have been given notice for sudden potential demand for raw materials." Some may argue that they are being over precautious, but no government wants to be the one to say they sat idle when a potential war was on hand.

Irissa can not say that much has happened with her own people, while democracy has its advantages, it also has its disadvantages, one such downside is having decisions made quickly - almost an impossibility with the bickering Matriarchs. "Our next actions are still being debated. Have you put any thought into what if they come with trade over war?"

"Lots. Species seems technology rich." Trust the Salarian to say this. "But waiting for analysis from Citadel Envoy to deduce what is tradeable."

"We are more concerned with borders in such an instance," Sparatus says, "Right next to the Batarians, and if it's true they have the technology to build constructs from Prothea, then pirate raids for tech are likely. We are willing to offer our services to stop such instances, in exchange for some technologies."

"What makes you think Sparatus that they will require a Turian fleet to protect themselves?"

"We are a known to this galaxy," Sparatus says, "Pirates and Batarians know we have a heavy fist, whereas they don't know how this species will react, so you can bet they will test the waters. We can be considered as a shit deflector."

Irissa blinks, "A fair conclusion. I believe the Matriarchs will want to know how to make Prothea in vast quantities at an affordable cost, and will provide a great deal to ascertain this."

"Hmm," The Salarian councillor says, interrupting Irissa and Sparatus, "We have an update."

The three peer at Valerns omni-tool, which now displays a repeating image of Turian and an unknown alien species Saluting one another, "This looks promising," Sparatus starts, "But I know a man of the military when I see one. I also see Captain Corvinus is with them, but who is the Asari? I know her by face but not name." He knows the Asari is some big hitter due to the fact he has seen her with Tevos more than a few times.

"Matriarch Benezzia," Irissa inform Sparatus, "She was on the Avian to help with the Prothean artefact. She is also a popular philosopher among my people. But seeing this makes me believe that there is a high chance Tevos is with them," Irissa concludes logically, "But then why would Benzzia be at this meeting and not Tevos."

Valern replies to Irissa, "A written report attached to the video says she is there to help translate Prothean, this species is apparently quite proficient at it."

Sparatus hums a little before saying, "It is starting to appear to me more and more like this station is Prothean with how this species is proficient in their language and making their material."

"Your jumping to conclusions." Irissa says, "We now have a means of communication, so we will know shortly. The fact they speak Prothean is also a bonus, it means we do not need to dedicate considerable resources into rapidly translating their language. Something that took us just shy of a year with the Volus if you remember correctly." The Volus were an absolute nightmare case to translate, not only did they speak in vastly different frequencies to any known species, but they also spoke in unusual sentence structures, making it even harder to understand. Today, what you hear when a volus speaks is an advanced virtual intelligence that translates as close to real time as possible. The different voices people hear when Volus speak is from where the Volus have tweaked said VI - in fact, the voice market for Volus's is a booming business, and a person with a 'respectable' voice can earn a lot of money by providing his voice to a Volus for use with their VI.

/.../

Palaven

The class leader walks back and forth at the front of the class, his hands neatly folded behind his back, in a way one would think is uncomfortable, but as the students in the class know, the class leader could remain in this stance for the entire lesson if needed, and maybe indefinitely. The teacher, as the students are very familiar with, is a strict, ex-military man who many suspects climbed quite high up the ranks, but none know for sure just how high, that is information the Turian has never let slip. One thing the students do know for certain, however, is the Turian's unquestioning loyalty to the Higherarchy, partially from his service, but also partially from his behaviour, no normal Turian has a 6 foot tall picture of the Primarch in his classroom, and no other teacher takes time out of their lesson to teach Higherarchy principles.

Coming to a stop at the centre of the room the Class Leader turns to a student and looks down with some disappointment before asking, "When you first walked into this classroom, 3 years ago, I asked you all, what is the difference between a citizen and a civilian. Most of you gave a correct answer, but none of you understood the answer. Sarraif, what is the difference?"

The student stands up from his rather simple metallic chair to reply, saying, "A citizen has earned the right to vote, a civilian has not. "

The class leader gives a sigh of disappointment before telling the student to sit back down and moving onto another student, who in turn also stands up to say, "The books tell us a Citizen accepts personal responsibility for the safety of a body politic, defending it with his life, a civilian does not."

"Excellent Cadet Desolas, " The Class Leader says with a small flare of his mandibles, "A perfect response, but, what does this mean?"

The student gives it a second before saying, "A citizen has the courage to make the safety of the Higherarchy their personal responsibility."

"Courage, they have the…" The class leader stops speaking before turning his body to fully face a different student, "Cadet Talon, what is so important on your omni-tool? " The class leader speaks with a calm demeanour but none doubt he is seething inside for the blatant disrespect.

Cadet Talon stands from his chair, "Fleet movements, Class Leader."

This perks the Class Leaders interest, his previous anger tamed, for now, but not forgotten about, "Do expand."

"The Primarch's Chosen has taken a fleet, including Asari and Salarian vessels to near the Terminus systems. Rumour is the Citadel…"

"Rumour?" Asks the Class Leader who has now approached the cadets table, "Which fleets have deployed."

"Third, Tenth, Fourteenth and Twenty First fleet. I'm not certain about the Asari or Salarian fleets, but it totals around 160 vessels "

The class leader allows his right mandible to move upwards slightly, all of that under the Great Cardeuss is a potent battle group, and maybe the largest battle group assembled in the last decade or so. "Cadet Novik, how many dreadnoughts would you expect to find in this battle group? "

A cadet stands on the opposite side of the room to say "Five, Including the Primarch's Chosen own dreadnought." Before sitting back down.

"Correct, " The class leader replies, "Cadet Hortensia, what is special about the named fleets? "

The cadet stands and takes a second before replying to the Class Leader, "All have elements that recently partook in the war games simulating a Batarian attack on a colony world." This is a common war game the Turians practice to help deter any 'Slave Runs' on Turian worlds.

The Class Leader takes a moment before turning to the Cadet, "Very true, but not what I was thinking of. Cadet Talon, what is the destination of the Fleets?"

"Sector 318-310."

The Class Leader turns on his heels to face the Cadet, "Interesting. The Batarian colony world of Ammon is in sector 311. Class, I have a new assignment for you, tomorrow I want a plan from each of you on an invasion of Ammon, presented in its whole. I will be paying particular attention to your logistics chain. Cadet Marcelleus, why may that be?" There is a silent but visual sigh from the class at receiving additional work.

As per usual, the cadet stands to reply, "Sector 311 is close to the Terminus, any conflict in this region will need a sturdy supply chain, or else attrition will be our downfall. "

"Indeed, Cadet Talon, you will also be presenting on the ramifications of a conflict with the Batarians. I am most interested in a proposed solution to the lack of Titanium they will cease to supply our fleets with. Class, you are dismissed."

/.../

Earth - Vancouver

Walking backstage from a press release the President takes off his suits jacket, removes his tie, and undoes his shirts top button to help cool down. Had the camera's been able to see under the podium, they would have seen the president's legs were quivering as he told Humanity that an alien fleet is currently orbiting Earth. Had the camera's VI's not been doing their job, they would have also seen excessive amounts of sweat running down his face, induced by both the nerves and the hot lights that illuminated him. In his speach, the President also told the people that a wartime economy was being declared, something not seen in hundreds of years, in order to best prepare for the worst possible outcome of his talks with the aliens. He told them that Humanity must prevail.

The President had not wanted to reveal the aliens quite yet, however, it had become a requirement, people had begun to ask serious questions, like why every available military asset was being activated, and why Ultron had been fired. It did not also help people with the correct type of telescope could zoom in on the Turian fleet. So, when a damage control system had been established to help control the inevitable panic and fallout, he had elected to tell the people.

With the people informed, the President now has access to additional funds, so he gives a high ranking military man a nod, and soon, Ultron Defence Platforms begin to get churned out of space docks in the hundreds, police forces gain access to military weapons, and Humanity, in general, prepares for another war.

After taking a minute to calm himself the President begins to walk with an advisor, "How are our translation team getting on?"

"Slow," The advisor responds.

"Can we get more people on it?"

The advisor shakes his head, "No, their device is slowing the entire thing down."

"Well, that is annoying. We need something to show that the Aliens are not out for us, and something soon. We need something to show the people to help calm them." The President has already released the footage of Captain Remus and one of his generals shaking hands, and Shepard passing over the atmosphere shield, but nothing more - he dared not show the exchange of salutes.

"If I may," An advisor speaks up, "What if we can show the Aliens are similar to us?"

"What are you thinking?"

The Advisor takes a second to collect his thoughts before going on, "Hear me out on this, but we need something where the aliens don't need to speak, yet where they are going to act just like a human."

"I'll ask again, what are you thinking?"

"A Safari."

"A Safari?" The President repeats not sure if he just heard correctly, "How will that further our goals?"

"We can't speak with them at the moment," The advisor begins to say, "But the people will at least want to see that we are doing something. Anything. Half of them don't care what, just as long as we are trying to not start a War with an alien collective. A Safari requires little talking, but can show the Aliens are interested in our world and it can show that we are trying to make positive relations, so if war does come, the people will at least know we tried."

The president stops walking and begins to nod, "Alright, I like the premise, but if things go wrong, this is on your head."

/.../

HWV Accipitridae

"Fleet Commander on..."

Quirinus holds his hand up to the Turian speaking and says, "Please, relax. I'm not here for inspections." Not that inspections are his job anyway.

With the Turian pacified Quirinus enters the Accipitridae's primary munition centre where twenty people are working - at the moment however they are all stood watching their Fleet Commander enter their small 'Dungeon' as they call it, and wondering why he is there. Sitting down on a table, to show his relaxed demeanour, he says, "Relax," His presence is enough to get most Turians stood rigid backed, "I'm just checking in on the crew, making sure you have all eaten. Speaking of which, have you all eaten something hot in the last 10 hours?"

The Fleet Commander gets enough flared mandibles to be content that the crew have eaten. "Excellent, excellent. I know you have been stood to for an exceptionally long time now, however, the situation is not a typical situation by any means, and requires an exceptional response. What do you know of the situation?"

A crewman begins to reply, telling him the last update they received and the Fleet Commander grimaces a little, the munition crew seemingly have little clue as to what is actually going on outside of a new species being discovered. It is a failure on the passage of information, it is a failure on the ship's officers for ensuring information is flowing, and it is a failure on his own behalf for not gripping the ship's Captain for failing to ensure information is getting passed around. Just as the Fleet Commander begins to explain the current situation his omni-tool rings, "Yes?" He inquires.

"Fleet Commander," The voice of the Fleet Orchestrator says, "The Hanar vessels are moving to leave the theatre of operations. All 6 vessels are accounted for."

'Why would they do that?' Wonders Quirinus internally before saying, "Understood, when they have left the system you are to reduce the threat level back to 3."

"As you command," The Orchestrator says before ending the call, allowing the Fleet Commander to go back to his original tasking. After talking with the munition crew for around ten minutes the Fleet Command begins to move to the next crew he wishes to talk with, but he is stopped in the corridor as his Omni-tool rings once more.

"Fleet Commander Speaking," Quirinus says, a hand to his ear allowing him to hear better.

It is the fleets communication officer who is on the opposite side of the omni-tool, "Fleet Commander, the Human comms box is flashing, we have already requested the presence of Matriarch Benezzia and Councillor Tevos."

Before Quirinus even speaks he is already turning around and making the way to the bridge, and as he walks towards it he says, "Probably related to the Hanar leaving," Quirinus assumes out loud, "I will be back in ten or so minutes."

Arriving on the bridge almost 13 minutes later the Turian notices that Matriarch Benezzia and Councillor Tevos are already there, and waiting on himself. "Councillor," Quirinus says to Tevos, recognising her as the highest ranking member on the bridge before saying, "Matriarch, when you are ready." Tevos may officially carry the highest rank on the bridge, but on a Turian bridge, she has no power, the rank is symbolic and affords her the respect required.

After a quick blink from Tevos to give her approval, Matriarch Benezzia says, "Then we shall proceed, are the recording devices active?" With a flare of a Turian's mandibles, Benezzia is happy they are being recorded and leans forward to press a big red button on the Human device, resulting in a General's holographic form appearing on top of the box a few seconds later.

After listening to the human speak for a few moments Benezzia frowns before turning to Tevos, "The Humans have offered us an 'animal tour' on their planet for two days. I am not entirely confident in what form this animal tour will take."

Tevos immediately turns to Quirinus, "Despite the unknowns, they are reaching out to us, and showing positive relations, showing values we as a citadel encourage, we can not turn this opportunity down."

Quirinus thinks hard for a moment, considering the possible outcomes and strategic position it would put him in before blinking to Tevos, "I concur. How many people are they permitting?"

Benezzia quickly asks the question before saying "12. We can bring guards in this number."

"On their world, 12 men will do little to nothing if violence erupts," Tevos remarks, "We can make the best use of this by sending people who can best show the galaxy as a whole, so 4 Asari, 4 Turians and 4 Salarians."

"Only Asari and Salarians in my fleet have come from the Avian," Quirinus tells Tevos, which surprises no one as his fleet is a Turian peacekeeping fleet and not a citadel peacekeeping fleet. "As for Turians, I will provide Captain Corvinus, Captain Remus, and two more from the Avian."

"Not yourself?" Asks Tevos.

"As much as I would love to go, no." Quirinus says, "My position is here, where I can be used if needed. I must also insist that you do not go, your position makes you a VIP."

"We can agree on who should and should not go later," Tevos informs, "But for now we must inform the General of our decision."

After informing the General Benezzia turns to the Turian Fleet Commander and says, "They are pleased. They also ask if we follow their ship in 5 hours time to the destination. He says it will be hot and cold."

Quirinus flares his mandibles in understanding.

/.../

Meanwhile - Star Base 1

Shepard looks up to her commanding officer with obvious confusion, "No armour and nothing larger than a concealable pistol?" She asks aloud making sure she has heard correctly, "Also respectable hot weather clothing and cold weather? Sir, what exactly has my team been signed up to?"

"A Safari that takes the aliens to some of Earths most exotic locations. Your team will be providing close security."

Shepard takes a second to rub her brow before saying, "I assume there is more protection than just my squad."

Shepards superior nods, "Yes. Helos are in flight, and the Army is securing the perimeter of areas you shall be visiting. You are simply there to provide assurance and protection for the VIP's."

"Who are the VIP's?"

"The president is going." The 1 up says.

This news causes Shepard to frown in confusion, "What is wrong with the secret service?"

"Because," Begins the 1 up, "Your guys would wipe the floor with them. Secret service is not augmented as they are required to operate in public. If they were augmented, they would stick out like a sore thumb."

"Fair enough."

/.../

**Cheers**


	6. Chapter 6

**Alrighty, just a quick one, cheers for all who have been reviewing recently. I've answered a fair few questions below but I can't get them all or I'd have an entire chapter dedicated to it. So if I didn't answer your question im sorry, but I do appreciate them!**

**This chapter has also been written in a new way, let me know what you think, please!**

**RR**

**Brandonack96 : You are going to find out regarding the Batarians in the next few chapters, mostly from Ava's side story which will develop and cause a huge headache for the Citadel. Geth I haven't got any plans for yet, but the Quarians do have a small role to play.**

**Jmsdragn: You are 100% correct, thanks for the correction**

**Raziel Tepes: You have hit on something with your comment there, why do we accept deaths in training but have a massive out cry over deaths in combat? Surely it should be the other way round correct? Just an observation though. **

**Jotunsquid: I need to go back and clarify, the ringworld is above the north pole and is more like a 'halo' on the earth. Cheers for asking the question.**

**The Prie Cronos: Thanks, I stayed safe!**

**Ralmon: I hope I fix the POV for you this chapter. I've tried writing it in a completely different way from my other chapters. As for the dishes, this was a case of still need to eat, but got caught with their pants down. Its on a mining station, not a military station where people would be prepared and know what to do in such circumstances. How the air didn't escape is because the hanar ship is cutting through from an airlock on their side after latching onto the mining station.**

**Myllinu: Yes, the whole 'maybe this is what is going on' is what I want the guys in the story to be thinking, and getting wrong.**

**Zippy Saboteur, You're about to find out a bit more of Ava's journeys. **

**Kira-117 Cheers for your continuous thorough reviews. I am working on my humans and this chapter away from them is letting me think some more. Thanks for that. As for where are the other ships? This will be developed further, as will why haven't we tried to colonise other solar systems using a means of travel slower than FTL. I don't just want to give all the answers. As for letting some advanced tech go, it could have many advantages too, some of which will come to play. **

**SurplusTime: I knew someone would get it! I was debating about making the class teacher have a metal arm but thought that would give it away too much. As for being out in the sticks, I manage a bunch of guys that fix kit that is out in the sticks. **

**Guest: Andromeda does not exists in my eyes. The more I think of the game, the more stupid I realise the game is. **

**/.../**

Tevos' awaits for the door to close behind the Fleet Commander before voicing her thoughts, and with the room secure from prying ears, she says, "I will be attending this visit."

The fleet Commander does not like the idea one single little bit, he knows that if anything happens down on the planet below, he will be powerless to help, even with his fleet in orbit. He does not know if he outguns the locals, so he can not use force to get his people back, and if Matriarch Benezzia attends - which is most likely - then he can not speak with the locals so he can't use diplomacy to get them back. The most he could do is wait for the reinforcements the Citadel is sending to his location.

Tevos watches the internal conflict within the Turian Fleet Commander carefully before adding, "History has shown the first invite to an alien world tends to show off what that species thinks is important. Your species showed a great military parade, the Salarian's showed a plethora of mathematic equations our ambassadors had no hope of understanding and the Hanar showed their profound understanding of Prothean technology. No doubt you can see how those visits foreshadowed what input into the galaxy said species had."

The Turian breathes out heavily as he moves to a window and looks out of it, the planet below him is way too blue for his liking. "If you go and get killed, the Hierarchy will not forgive me like your own species would. I will be taking a great risk allowing you to go down there."

Tevos can fully understand the Turians resistance, failure is not looked upon kindly within the Hierarchy, and if she is 'lost' under his watch, then the news would go far and wide, meaning the Fleet Commander would probably never see the day of light again for bringing the supposedly impervious Turian navy into disrepute. Unfortunately, Tevos also knows the repercussions would not just hit the Fleet Commander, it would affect his entire family, anyone who shares his blood would feel some of the Higherarchy's frankly unforgiving wrath. Taking a second to gather her thoughts and arguments, Tevos then says, "It is a risk you accepted when you were commissioned as a Fleet Commander within the Turian Imperial Navy. Yes, I may not be a part of your Hierarchy, and can not formally order you to let me go, but I am the Asari Councillor in the depth of First Contact. The reward far outweighs the risk in this instance."

"Yes." Quirinus muses, more to himself than to Tevos, "You are the Asari Councillor. I will not prevent your attendance; however, I will raise a formal complaint. Your actions are not just risking myself, but the lives of my men." This complaint will get far in the Hierarchy, whose Populus is easily motivated by nationalism, and the idea the Asari are putting Turian lives in unneeded risk will rile more than a few.

Tevos suppresses a wince, she does not like to hear that her actions are putting others at risk. "It is a risk you agreed to..."

The Councillor is interrupted by the ship's internal speakers. "Fleet Commander to the bridge."

With a raised mandible the Turian turns on the spot and walks the short distance to the bridge, Tevos in tow. "Sitrep." He demands the moment he is on the deck.

The ships captain replies to him, "A new vessel has made an appearance. Just arrived on a vector of 634,240,009." Tevos quickly glances at a secondary screen, with the mentioned vector in mind the new ship is not facing the Turian fleet.

"Show me," Quirinus says as he turns to the view screen, and shortly a large vessel is on the viewscreen, the ship is vastly different from typical human design - instead of being sleek looking and predatory, the vessel looks like an absolute bruiser. Instead of the impossible black's the Turians have come to typically associate with human vessels, the ship is almost a shiny gunmetal colour, which accentuates the sharp angles of the ship. Tevos looks on with a little concern, while the other vessels that have decloaked have been obvious warships, they were rather small and did not really look dangerous, this vessel, however, is different. If anything, Tevos thinks to her self, it looks like this ship is something that is meant to be seen, something that is meant to deter actions. As they watch the mega vessel, 6 stealth ships momentarily decloak next to it before recloaking, their stealth technology making them invisible. Swallowing a little Tevos asks, "How large is it?"

"5 km," Someone on the bridge replies, "It has just appeared from nowhere, and it is not registering on Ladar."

Tevos clenches her fists a little, she does not like how much this species seems to favour stealth technology, it makes her think that they could be very secretive and will keep to themselves, or worse yet, be deceitful. She also hates how this species seem to have built a ship bigger than the Destiny Ascension, but she pushes this to the back of her mind, she can not fill her mind with jealousy or fear right now in case it causes any prejudice against them. After a moment for the bridge crew to observe the vessel, Tevos turns her head to hear Quirinus say, "Senior crew members in the briefing room, 5 minutes."

Tevos follows the senior crew members in and stays to the corner of the room, she wishes to hear what is about to be discussed, in case she needs to add any input. Quirinus begins after ensuring all who are supposed to be in attendance is actually present. "I'm sure by now you have all heard of the latest development," He begins, and sure enough all the Turians flare their mandibles or verbally acknowledge the comment. "Then I wish to make it known I've come to the conclusion that this species has capabilities outside of what we are equipped to deal with. We know they have numerous stealth vessels, and now mega vessels well beyond dreadnought classification. We know they have plasma technology, and other advanced technologies reported from the rescued members of the Avian. Captain Remus has informed me of paintings that show battles of all manners. We are not dealing with rookies here but a species that finds an old friend in battle."

The Turian pauses for a second to look at Tevos before going on, saying, "Now, against my wishes, Councillor Tevos is going to be taking a ground party to their world. If anything happens, there will be no rescue party. We will withdraw to RV with the citadel fleet. Make no mistake, we are in thresher maw territory here, we do not know how numerous they are, how grown up they are or how hungry they are, and as you all should know from training, you do not stay in such territory. Prepare your people for a fighting withdraw."

The Fleet Commander takes another moment before turning once more to face Tevos, where he then says, "I can not protect your ground party, nor will I order anyone to partake in your visit."

Tevos gives the Turian a long slow blink before telling him, "I respect your reasoning, but as we discussed, I can not turn this opportunity down."

"Then your shuttle will leave in five hours."

/.../

5 hours later

Tevos finds herself sitting in a window chair of an unarmed shuttlecraft, she placed herself there specifically so she could view the planet as they come to land. The last five hours have been rather hectic if she was honest, people were given immune system jabs of all kinds to help boost their immune response incase the unknowns have anything nasty in their system, omni-tools were outfitted with specialist recording equipment and software from the medicine world so they could scan the biology of the planet below. Matriarch Benezzia has given the lucky 12 going planetside a few phrases in Prothean to learn, simple things such as 'sorry', 'hello' and 'thank-you'. Tevos herself has given a lesson on basic etiquette, so as to help reduce instances from misunderstanding, and lessons what to look for in this new species - behavioural and cultural. Emergency communication devices have been hidden in the kit of the intrepid 12, clothes of all sorts have been packed, some salvaged from the Avian for the Asari crew, and any sensitive equipment on the shuttlecraft has been stipped so as to reduce the damage a captured shuttle could do - even the navigation systems were wiped clean to prevent the aliens finding their homeworlds.

Hearing the airlock on the shuttle seal shut shortly followed by a split second of zero gravity as the shuttle left the Fleet Commanders Dreadnought, Tevos' can feel a flutter in her stomach, a flutter of nerves. She did not for one second believe the Humans were like the Yahg, but she could not get the idea out of her head, she puts it down to nerves. After a few minutes, the shuttlecrafts pilot, Captain Corvinus, speaks over the intercom, announcing that they have RV'd with a human vessel that will guide them down to the planet. Standing from her chair Tevos makes her way to the front of the shuttle and looks out the forward window, there she sees a small craft, dark grey in colour and triangular in shape guiding them. Looking down to the shuttle's controls, Tevos notices that like most other human things, this vessel does not register on Ladar, and it makes her wonder why the Humans favour stealth so much.

As they descend to the planet Tevos quickly gets the impression that the ride down is also going to be a small tour in its own, first they approach the station they were temporarily held on, only to then venture above the planets north pole and above the ringworld, where glowing defences of all kinds could be seen on the construct - no doubt to take it would demand a fleet in its own. The orbital world, which worries Tevos a little, looks nothing like a Prothean construct; instead, it is of its own design, and the habitat area on the inside looks almost like a strip of earth has been taken from the planet and transplanted onto the construct, there are oceans and forests, cities and towns. Next, the shuttle takes a voyage to a small, but dangerous-looking Satelite, it is almost 25 meters wide by 25 meters long, but one could not miss the glowing cannon on it, the thing looks ready to fire on a seconds notice and in truth the platform intimidates Tevos. What she does not know is she is looking at one of Ultron's many platforms. Tevos understands the message, why she is being shown this satellite, it tells her the world is defended, and its cannons are primed. After going unusually slow past the defence installation, the human vessel guides them to yet another installation, this time the construct is a doughnut in shape, and the human vessel passes right through the centre.

Tevos's vessel follows and the moment they pass through the centre of the doughnut the communication console flares into life as signals of all sorts bombard the ship, signals her shuttle does not know how to translate or understand. It puzzles Tevos why they can only now detect the human signals, but she supposes that some human tech must be blocking them from reaching outer space. "Councillor, you may want to see this," She hears the Corvinus call to her.

Tevos turns her attention to the Avians ex-captain, and he points to a console, "Traces of heavy isotopes in the atmosphere. Evidence of a nuclear event, maybe a few hundred years old."

Tevos slowly blinks, for some reason she is only a little surprised by this announcement, but it saddens her, she had hoped for a peaceful species, but her hope is fading the more she sees. Returning to her seat Tevos begins to look out her window, and is intrigued as the shuttle flies over some great metropolis, but the lack of apparent sky cars perplexes her, how does this society move from one location to another? Do they walk everywhere, or are they like the Batarians, where only the most senior ranks of government are allowed to own and use sky cars - but even then you can see some sky cars buzzing around when you fly over a Batarian city - but this city has none that she can see. What she is happy to see, however, is more than a few large green area's, it is always a nice change to see a city with plant life these days she thinks. Soon, the city is long behind them, and Tevos is looking down at a wide-open space in front of a quaint old looking building, two stories in height by maybe 50 meters long, it is decorated at numerous points with pots of vividly coloured flowers. The old building is made from what appears like slate rock and is positioned on top of a hill which overlooks a vast open area. In the far distance, snow-peaked mountains can be seen, but before the great mountains, there is an enormous green forest that is occasionally crisscrossed by an almost baby blue in colour river. Immediately in front of the building, there are maybe two dozen people gathered, and a wide red carpet that leads out up to a hundred meters is laid in front of the front door. The shuttle lands just past the carpet as Corvinus feared that had they landed on the carpet, the static that has inevitably built up on the shuttle's hull would inevitably ignite the carpet.

With the shuttle landed safely, Tevos stands from her chair and makes her way to the back door of the shuttle with the rest of the craft's occupants, here she waits for a few moments with the rest of the crew. Before disembarking the shuttle, the craft must run through a few processes; first, the hull must lose its static charge, this only takes a second at best, but the shuttle must also equalise its internal pressure with the external atmospheric pressure, this must be done slowly for the crew's comfort.

As the atmospheric pressure equalises Tevos moves to the back of those waiting to get off, taking her place in the order of people to disembark. First, Corvinus will depart the shuttle with Benezzia, then a Salarian and Turian will disembark, then an Asari and Salarian. Tevos will be one of the last to leave the craft, still in an attempt to hide her importance - she knows this could come back to bite her in future negotiations, but she hopes with how this species favours stealth, that they will understand the need to hide her status.

Seeing the light above the shuttles rear door turn from a blue hue to a red colour, Tevos awaits for the expected, and soon she can hear Corvinus say, "Atmospheric pressures matched. Opening shuttle doors now." It does not take long for the shuttle to react, and the doors slowly begin to lower from their locked close positions, and as they creep open, some sounds begin to fill the air. It does not take long for the Asari to figure out that the sounds belong to what must be stringed instruments, due to the similarities with not only Asari stringed instruments but also Turian and Quarian instruments. If one is familiar with music from the various species, which Tevos is, one can find similarities and familiar tones in set types of music. For example, music with aggressive undertones can often be found to have harsh sounds, for example, sharp drums being played at high speed, and traditional military music can be found to have a slow but steady rhythm, something troops can march to. Fortunately, Tevos can not hear a tune that would be suitable for a Turian military parade, or in a hate film produced by Krogan Terror Cells, instead, the tune filling her ears is more of a soft melody, and it reminds her of a tune which plays on an Asari discovery program that she watched as a young maiden which showcases the new worlds intrepid explorers have found in their journeys. It is fitting, she thinks, that it will be to a similar tune that she takes her firsts steps onto this new world.

Leaving the shuttle, Tevos follows Corvinius and Benezzia as they lead the group of 12 up the red carpet, and as they walk the small distance, Tevos can see the brass and string band that are playing, they are positioned under an overhang on a balcony on the first floor of the building, which hid them from sight as they come to land. Tevos also takes a few other mental notes, the temperature is not hot, but nor is it warm, its at just the right temperature, and the air smells pleasantly clean, with a small tinge of local flora life, it is as if it has just been produced in the nearby forests and not yet had the chance to be polluted. She has been to some industrialised planets where the industry has made the air pungent to the nose no matter where you go, so it is nice to see that this has not happened to this world - yet. As Corvinus reaches the building, he is met by a human who is not overly tall in height, maybe 5 foot 10, 5 foot 11. As Benezzia and Corvinus come to a standstill the band that was playing are turned down so that they do not drown out any conversations, and a few words are exchanged between Benezzia and the human, but Tevos can not hear what is said, so she focuses on the facial expressions. The human seems for the lack of better words merry, Benezzia is hiding her genuine emotions behind what Tevos has come to learn is her false smile, and Captain Corvinus is looking a little lost in all honesty, but he is being reciprocal to the human - a good sign.

Behind the lead human Tevos can see a few other humans, some she recognises some she does not, one she does remember encountering previously has bright green hair, and is watching her group with careful eyes. After going over a few other human faces, Tevos quickly comes to the conclusion that these are the soldiers that rescued her from the Avian, but instead of being in armour they are in civilian dress, but what concerns her a little is their size. Compared to the lead human, they are tall, and all of them look very athletic, not bulky, but physically fit. Eventually, Tevos is forced to look away from the soldiers and to Benezzia who is approaching her with the lead human. Arriving at Tevos's location Benezzia speaks to the human, exchanging a few words before telling Tevos, "This is the human leader, President Dallas."

The human says a few words before holding his hand out while smiling and Tevos gives it a small shake, knowing from other interactions that this is a greeting to humans. Once the handshake comes to an end, the Turian to her side also has his hand shaken, before the President moves onto some others, allowing Tevos to go back to her previous observations. Looking back to the building Tevos can see what looks like a man working on what could possibly be a camera system, which does not surprise her, she suspects this species will want the event documented as would her own - maybe the humans would provide some footage for the Citadel's archives if she requests it.

With the lead human now acquainted with his guests, he invites them inside, and Tevos follows with the rest of her group into the building. Getting inside the building, Tevos is surprised to find its interior looks modern, unlike the buildings outside, for some reason she anticipated and half wanted to find something old and antique looking, something that would match the exterior of the building. She does not have long to dwell on this thought, however, as she is directed into a small room that has a large circular table in the centre of the room, and at the far end of the room is some large glass windows that allows the rooms occupants a good view onto the mountains in the distance.

At the circular table in the centre of the room there are 15 chairs, 12 Tevos assumes is for herself and her fellow intrepid explorers, one she also believes is for this Presidential figure, but the last two she is uncertain of. It does not take long however for the 2 other chairs to be filled, the first empty chair is filled by the green-haired human, and the second is filled by someone she is unfamiliar with, but someone she is sure will be introduced in good time. To the President's immediate right sits Benezzia, which makes sense to Tevos, as she is the only one who can hold a conversation with this species, and to his left sits the green-haired woman. On the table in front of everyone but the humans, is a single black slate of glass, 16cm long, by 7 cm wide, by 1 cm deep, its purpose is lost on herself.

The President begins to speak to Benezzia once everyone is seated, and Tevos guesses that the two are struggling to really communicate effectively. Tevos reckons this because of a few mannerisms displayed by the human, his speech slows down more than a few times, he repeats a few phrases and tries different singular words every now and then if it looks like Benezzia is grappling for understanding. After a few minutes of back and forth, Benezzia eventually turns to look at the rest of her group, and announces, "The President is grateful that we accepted their offer to come to their world and is excited to show us what wildlife their homeworld has to offer. To the Presidents left, the one with green hair, is Captain Shepard, whose team is providing security for ourselves, and to her left is our tour guide, Doctor Marlee." Tevos turns her eyes to look at Doctor Marlee, and can't help but notice how different looking he is to the other two humans in the room. First of all, his skin colour is more than a few degrees darker, and the skin around his eyes make his eyes appear to have a different shape, his hair is shorter too, but it also seems to have a different texture. With this in mind, it comes to Tevos that this species is likely to be genetically diverse, and from other discovered species, namely the Quarians, volus and the Turians, species with major genetic diversity typically has numerous different cultures, each one as unique and varied as the last. This type of cultural diversity while fantastic to discover can make integrating the species into a collective of others difficult, as a basic set of rules which may apply to one culture may not apply to others. An excellent example of this is with the Quarians before the morning war, in one culture the judiciary system worked in a court of law with Quarians observing the evidence and making a decision on the type and severity of the punishment, yet in another, it worked off a very unique point system which almost allowed you to get away with crimes if your 'points' was above a certain amount - A computer would calculate this. Accommodating for these different types of systems Tevos can remember reading was a difficult task for the ambassadors at the time.

After the Doctor waved a hand and said a single word, Benezzia went back to consulting with the President, this time however she speaks for a considerably longer time before turning to once more say, "The main events list for ourselves is tonight we relax in this hotel, tomorrow at sunrise we leave in a 'motor car' for a safari, where we return to this location in the evening, then the day after we will be taking a tour of the ocean's wildlife. First, however, we have a few briefs for our safety."

The first brief Tevos receives familiarise's her with the black slate of glass on the desk in front of her, and it turns out that this little piece of glass is this species equivalent of an omni-tool. It is a computer, phone, scanner and camera all in one, and after a quick lesson Tevos can use the device to take a picture, record a video, call security and others in the away team. Tevos is sure that the device is capable of so much more, but without understanding the human language, she would never be able to operate the device to its full potential. After this brief, the green-haired woman gives an essential summary on security affairs, which boils down to not attacking the President, not leaving the hotel without an escort, and not using any weapons they may or may not have with them. If there is an incident, the human's team will 'deal with it', whatever that means, and her own people are to 'get their heads down' and keep out of danger.

Finally, the Doctor gives them the final brief of the day, which gives Tevos a glimpse into what to expect in the next day or so. The man drew their attention to one of the windows which looks out over the surrounding scenery and just like magic the window turned into a type of TV. The TV plays a video which showcases a few animals, and the Doctor would occasionally stop the video in order to talk about some animals, mostly it was to say to avoid, and not touch or approach them. Really, Tevos thinks that what the Doctor is talking about must be basic stuff to most humans, but it still interests her anyway, mostly because it is showcasing some of the animals they are going to be shown.

With the final brief over a worker from the hotel enters the briefing room and Tevos is guided through the hotel and to a door, which opens upon presenting her slate of glass to a sensor on the wall next to the door. When the door opens it reveals to Tevos her hotel room for her duration on Earth, and taking a few steps inside Tevos looks around with intrigue, wondering what sort of quality has been prepared for herself. In her first few steps inside her room, she is mildly impressed, the accommodation is spacious, immaculately clean, fully equipped and leaves a warm cosy feeling in her gut - if she were provided with this accommodation on a visit to any citadel connected world she would be happy with it. What impresses her the most, however, is how the main feature of the room is a large glass window that looks out over the scenery surrounding the hotel. With her room explored Tevos leaves it to find Benezzia, which isn't a hard task as her entire party have been situated on the same floor, and Benezzia is in the first room.

Entering Benezzia's room Tevos eyes are immediately attracted to the window of the room, or rather the lack of window, instead of a window to admire the local surroundings Benezzia seems to have some sort of entertainment device, which is playing what Tevos assumes is a local news channel. "You do not have a window?" Tevos asks Benezzia.

"I do," The other Matriarch responds before approaching the entertainment device and tapping on its side, which causes the display to instantly fade and be replaced with a translucent glass window. Tapping on the glass again at the same location causes the entertainment device to return, still on the news channel. At the moment the TV is muted, and the hosts seem to be talking about some sort of industry factory if the occasional videos that are playing are at all related to the story. Tevos turns her head from the TV and to Benezzia, asking, "So, what is in the itinerary for the rest of the evening?"

"We have an evening meal in two hours time, but till then we are free to explore this hotel, it is supposed to have numerous attractions for us to explore."

Tevos widens her eyelids a little, "We just ate a large meal before leaving. Have you been told of what attractions are for us to find?"

Benezzia blinks her eyes slowly in agreement, she too ate a large meal before coming down to the planet, and she wished the humans had told them to expect a meal, but she can understand why the fact may have got missed, they must be running around with their heads on fire right now. "Yes, I believe I will be forcing it down too. As for attractions, I have been told of a 'holo-suite', a gym, a spa, a garden, a swimming pool, bar, and a games lobby."

"Holo-suite seems like it could be interesting..." Tevos begins to reply but turns her head as she sees a large red headline flash on the news program, and is not at all surprised when she sees footage of her shuttle landing and shortly after her away party disembarking the shuttle to meet the President. "I would imagine that banner says breaking news," Tevos says.

"Hmm," Benezzia agrees, "I am hoping for them to show us some of the population's reactions. Even if we can't understand what they are saying, we may be able to judge their reactions from their actions and behaviours alone."

Tevos continues to watch the program with Benezzia for a short time before they realise that what they are hoping to see may not come on the news program, and that they are better off exploring what other things this hotel has to offer.

/.../

/.../

Hanar Vortex

Ava finds herself sat in the corner of the room she is confined to, knowing that whatever the aliens have planned for her, she has no escape. After helping the still unconscious alien the best she could, she explored every single inch of the room, looking for anything which could be of use in her situation, but this cell is truely thorough, she couldn't even get her fingers in any gaps to try and pry the doors open. Hearing the alien begin to stir a little, Ava looks up, but the alien has only rolled over, and is still not awake, so she goes back into her own thoughts. Thankfully Ava thinks, she only charged her cells up 36 days ago, which means she will probably have another 94 days till she will need to recharge. With power-saving measures active Ava quickly calculates that she could last 112 days, but this would mean reducing her core temperature to 293 kelvin, something which could give her away as being synthetic. She could also reduces motor functions, that would provide her with a maximum of 2 additional days, and she could reduce her processing power, but that would effectively reduce her intelligence as her thinking prowess would be reduced, although it would give her an additional 6 days. With a half defeated sigh Ava realises that she will only be able to extend her battery life by two days, she does not wish to give away that she is a synthetic and she wants all her thinking prowess right now if not more, otherwise she fears she will never see Human space again, and those she is supposed to care for on the mining station.

Seeing some movement in her peripheral vision, Ava looks to the injured alien and sees it is starting to move some more, which in Ava's mind is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It could be good because she can learn about the alien, but bad because whatever this thing is, it could ultimately attack her. It is another 10 minutes till the alien actually stirs into a conscious state, and upon seeing her, the alien immediately scurries back into the far corner of the room on all its fours, where it then stares at Ava. Ava watches the alien closely, carefully scrutinising it with her eyes that dimly glow purple to tell a human she is a synthetic. Ava can see the alien's chest rising and lowering rapidly as the alien takes hurried breaths, and Ava notices its eyes are quickly glancing around the room, probably searching for something it can use. If this were a Human, Ava would be sure it is petrified, which tells Ava it is likely to act erratically.

Ava continues to watch the alien from her position in the far corner of the room, and every now and then she would slowly raise a hand to scratch her nose, or brush her hair from her face, the acts were not required, the hair in her face does not hinder any of her functions nor the 'itchy nose', but the actions make her seem more organic. All of a sudden, there is a loud clunk that reverberates around the ship, and Ava can hear some loud and heavy footsteps making their way towards her cell. Standing from her position on the floor, Ava moves to the back wall of the room and looks to the rooms single door, anticipating the aliens who captured her. Ava notes that the blue alien has joined her, positioning herself also on the back wall of the room, albeit it as far away as possible from herself, and it occurs to Ava that the blue alien must have made the decision that the approaching aliens are more dangerous than herself.

It is not long till the door opens, and a massive alien walks through, in its hands, it carries a tremendous looking weapon that moves continuously from pointing at Ava, to pointing at the blue alien. The alien, Ava thinks, looks like half a mix between a bat and a toad, but if she had to give them a name, she would definitely settle with toad face, for some reason it just feels right to her. The alien barks something at her, but Ava can not comprehend it, the language is lost to her; however, the blue alien seems to have a look of recognition, but it does not move. The large alien barks the same few words again, and Ava's auditory receptors note the alien's speech has a decrease of half an octave, probably in response to having to repeat itself. Toadface turns its huge weapon to the blue alien and says something again before reaching out and grabbing her by the arm, where it then tosses her towards the door where another toad face grabs her by the shoulder and frogmarches her somewhere. Ava suspects that she is next.

Sure enough, Ava finds a huge reptilian-like claw grabbing her shoulder, and she is marched through the ship and through the airlock she used to initially enter the vessel, and looking around in the harsh sunlight, Ava concludes she must be in a dock of some kind, she can see numerous other aliens, some of a species she has never seen before, and many different type of craft that have all landed on this world. With a rough push forward Ava walks behind another toad face which is guiding the blue alien. In front of the blue alien is one of the slim green aliens that had come to talk to her on Sevastopol, it appears to herself that this is the lead alien.

The group begin to walk up the docks, and as they walk Ava can see numerous eyes turn to herself, it would seem, at least to Ava, like she has dragged a lot of attention to her small group, and she suspects it is because maybe she is an alien they have never seen before. As she walks, she also notices a few things of interest; notably, more than a handful of people, of various species, are either completely naked, or mostly naked, and these naked people do not seem to hold eye contact at all; instead, they seem to favour to look to the floor. In addition to the naked people, it would also seem like people are intimidated by the Toad faces because where ever they go, people part for them. After walking almost 300 meters up the dock, Ava's small group arrive at a tall building that is maybe 400 meters in height, but before walking through the buildings front door, the lead alien of Ava's group is stopped by two 5 foot tall aliens that have four eyes, the aliens are armed with what looks like assault rifles if Ava had to guess. The four-eyed aliens, now to be known as Four Eyes to Ava, bark some words to the lead alien, and after some commotion between the lead alien and the Toad Faces, the Toad Faces hand over their weapons.

With another thrust on her shoulder from behind Ava begins to follow the Toad-face in front of her into the building, and soon they come to a stop at a desk where there is a que of around 16 people. In the que, some people look to be like herself and the blue alien, that being held captive by others. At the desk, three four eyed aliens are working, where they seem to be looking over the captured aliens before giving their captors directions. The group wait for almost a minute in the queue before yet another four-eyed alien approaches the lead alien of Ava's group, the alien is dressed well, or so Ava thinks. The two aliens begin exchanging words, with their eyes often jumping to view Ava before going back to discussions and eventually the four-eyed alien gestures to a door on the far side of the room and the lead alien begins to walk, in step with the four eyes. Ava feels yet another shove on her shoulder to get her walking and soon the group go through the door the four eyed alien gestured to, and Ava finds herself in an elevator, which if she had to guess, is about to go to the very top floor.

/.../

**Cheers all. If you liked the new style of writing let me know and I'll do more like this over multiple POV's and a quick-moving story. **


	7. Chapter 7

**So, I've tried to focus on some small things here, which can show the difficulties of first contact and integrating a new species. We also have some advancement with our robotic character.**

**RR**

**EffervescentNova: Happy to oblige with Ava, from a slightly different perspective though. Enjoy**

**Zippy Saboteur, I half deliver this chapter. Day 1 of 2 down. **

**Ralmon: Once again I have to thank you for the time you are taking to write the in depth constructive reviews - and not just criticize like some do. I will be going back to fix things you've mentioned in the next few days. Also, just for you, almost 0 Human POV. Only a few lines at the very end to give some development in other areas. **

**Scarease: **

**Cheers.**

**The Prime Cronos: Yeah, I'm going to try and stick with the aliens alot more now. Thanks. **

**IHateGenericCereal: Yeah, one thing I've noticed is a lot of first contact stories focus a lot on the war, and then very little on the actual meaty details of how in the hell do you do a first contact? You can't have a 'first contact package' like in most scifi movies/ series as your computers are not going to be able to communicate with an aliens due to differences in technology and protocols, and the whole communicator I find is lazy, and a means to just speed things up without looking at the actual problem of differences in speech. Arrivals was very good at this concept, but ruined it at the end imo. **

**George Cristian810**

**We only have relatively basic concept theories of FTL methods at the moment, we don't even have proof or evidence it is possible, not even on a micro scale. Just because we are advancing at a fast rate now, it does not mean we are going to crack it any time soon. **

The evening meal was not what Tevos or any of her away team expected, instead of being served portions of various food, and having the origins of said food explained to them, which typically happens at a meal like this on First Contact, the Humans had instead provided a buffet for them, where they could choose what they please and leave what they did not like. Large trays of food had been put out on numerous tables, and she was told she could come and go to the trays as she pleases, and Tevos is quietly grateful for this, knowing in the back of her head she is not truly hungry having just eaten before heading for this world. It is also wise of the Humans, Tevos thinks because without actually putting food in front of them, they are reducing the pressure on her to eat food she may not like, or even consuming items which may be inedible to her own biology.

The effort which went into the buffet was a little surprising to Tevos if she was honest, the number of various foods available was astonishing for one restaurant to provide, but if anything it is a good sign that the humans are putting in the effort; she does wonder though as to how much of this food was made with their technology. With her omni-tool in hand, Tevos moves around the room till she finds something she likes the look of, and with a wave of her hand she scans the food item, allowing her omni-tool to determine its genetic base. If the food is Levo based, Tevos knows that it is safe to consume, but if its Dextro based, then the food will pass right through her, and she knows she will get little from it. Unlike what some old sci-fi books may say, Tevos knows that consuming a little Dextro based food will not kill her, in fact she would be unlucky if she had any side effects past feeling a little bloated. After a second to compute its findings, Tevos's omni-tool beeps and displays something she has rarely seen before, instead of just finding Dextro based amino acids or levo based acids, the food item is rich in both. With a frown Tevos scans another item, and then another, and all the results come back the same, and it appears to Tevos like Humans do not care about the genetic construct of their foods. This is not the first time a species has been discovered where they can eat both types of amino-acids, but it is a little rare, most species stick to one or another.

As Tevos sets her omni-tool to study another item Captain Corvinus moves to a tray of food by her left and scans it, and as he scans, he says, "How sensitive do you think the human nose is?"

Tevos spares the Turian a knowing glance, whereas she might get a little bloated from ingesting incorrect food types, Turians have a more embarrassing problem, which is why they tend to avoid levo based food like the plague when in public. Tevos replies to the Turian as she scans another food item, "I would not advise testing it... However, you are in luck, this is almost entirely Dextro based." Tevos looks down from her omni-tool and to the food she has scanned, and she is a little repulsed by what she sees, the 'food' looks to be a cooked creature of some kind, it has long thin twig-like legs, small beady black eyes and a hard pinkish shell around it - she knows this will not repulse a typical Turian though - a species which most popular snack could be best described as raw meat still on the bone. Come to think of it, Tevos realises that Turians are probably the most carnivorous of the advanced species in the galaxy, with not even a Krogan eating more meat than the average Turian. Tevos knows that it will quickly spread that some dextro food has been found, so she moves to another table, knowing that her last location is about to get swarmed with 4 Turians.

As she scans the various foods, she finds she bumps into Benezzia, who like every other Asari, Salarian and Turian, is scanning their food. "It would seem," Benezzia says as she scans, "That this species is very carnivorous. Everything I have scanned so far has animal products of some kind."

"Well," Tevos begins to reply before adding something to her plate which is mostly levo based, "Evidence would suggest to them being predators. Eyes in the front of the head with a rather narrow field of vision, sharp teeth at the front for tearing through meats, ears which seem to have evolved to be more efficient at hearing sounds from the front and sides. It would not surprise me the slightest to find that these are the apex predators of their homeworld."

"We share many similarities." Benezzia points out as she also puts a scoop of food onto her plate, "But we made the conscious decision to reduce our intake of animal products. This species does not seem to have made that step."

"But we do not have the technology they do to produce food from seemingly thin air." Returns Tevos, "If this technology were introduced to the masses in Asari space, I would not be surprised if Haifi, Plaio or Vaavi meat becomes widespread once more." While some may consider Asari to be almost vegan, it would be an inaccurate description as most Asari have no issues eating meat, they just believe most eat too much of the substance.

"If this technology were introduced without thought of the consequences, the farming industries would collapse." Benezzia states before sniffing a tray of some sweet-smelling food. "And as good as it is, it is dangerous to not only the Asari economy but the Citadel economy." Benezzia knows the largest argument against the technology will run along the lines of 'it will never be as good as the real thing', but Benezzia also knows the convenience of it will make many prefer it over the real stuff- it is for this very reason why fast food restaurants have taken off in Citadel space.

"But these people must feed their machines something to create this food," Tevos ponders aloud to Benezzia, "They can not create something from nothing; it is a basic universal principle. Whatever this 'something' is, that would be the new farming. But, I do agree, this technology would have to be introduced slowly, and what is its limits? Can it create technology itself, would I be able to create weapons with it? While it is very fascinating, it does worry me."

"Hmm," Benezzia replies as they wander back to a table to try the food they have put on their plates. In the centre of the table they are to eat from is their next problem, the humans have placed a dozen different type of drinks for her people to try. The lead human has taken to sipping some dark red substance, so Tevos reaches for the bottle containing this liquid first, and a quick scan from her omni-tool proves it to be safe to consume; the omni-tool also beeps to warn her that the drink is alcoholic. After passing the sniff test Tevos begins to pour the liquid into her own glass, and as she does, she says, "It always amuses me that alcohol is a universal constant, every species known is effected by it."

"It is a curiosity." Benezzia agrees before pouring herself some of the substance, "Maybe it is the goddesses way of bringing us all together, or maybe it is the universes form of a joke."

With the drinks poured, Tevos and Benezzia come to their next problem, looking down to the sides of their plates they see their eating utensils; and only one of the utensils is familiar to them. The knife both Tevos and Benezzia know how to use and are familiar with, but the other item that is in place of a 'Dinner Utensil' she is unsure of. She is used to using a tool which is designed a little like a spade, but this item has four prongs, and from watching the lead human, he seems to stab his food with it instead of shovelling it. With a shrug, the Asari councillor picks up the unusual utensil and begins using it, and the knack of the utensil comes quickly to her.

The next problem came as a complete surprise, her first few mouthfuls of food went well, with nothing to report on, however when she tries a slightly different food Tevos quickly realises something is wrong. First, she feels a slight discomfort on her tongue, and then it feels like she is eating and breathing pure fire. Tevos puts her eating utensils down and quickly takes a drink, but it only seems to make things worse. Feeling her blood rush to the surface of her skin, making her feel hot, Tevos calmly places down her eating utensils and scans the food again, running a more thorough test to see what is the cause of such a burning sensation.

"Tevos, are you well?" Benezzia asks her with a concerned frown on her face when she notices her friends change in demeanour.

Tevos does not look up but instead calmly replies, saying, "I am not certain, one of these food products is causing some discomfort. I would advise you to stop eating momentarily until I find the cause."

The scan takes maybe three or four times as long as a typical scan, and the longer Tevos waits the more the burning seems to intensify, her skin feels hot, her nose has begun to run and her eyes want to water. Eventually, a human waiter places a glass filled with a white substance in front of her, while giving her an encouraging gesture for her to consume it, and looking to the President he seems most encouraging for her to drink the item. Tevos does not jump into consuming the liquid, however, because whatever is causing the burning sensation could be in this liquid too. "Please scan that," Tevos asks from Benezzia as she begins to read over a more thorough scan of the food, but there are many unknown substances in the food that could all be a cause of the unexpected heat.

By the time Tevos has read the report, she is informed by the T'soni that the white drink is safe so the Councillor tries a little of the substance, and as if magic acts upon her the burning sensation dies down a little. Another gulp of the substance helps some more, and so Tevos takes to almost constantly sipping the white substance. "The good news," Tevos hears Benezzia say, "Is that the President has been watching you with concern. I do not think they expected your reaction. I've also tried to scan you, but you're not showing any unusual symptoms outside of increased outer skin temperature." Tevos blinks her slightly watering eyes, acknowledging the comment.

/.../

The rest of the meal was rather uneventful, not much was said, but it did not feel overly forced, and allowed Tevos to get an understanding of the Human habits when dining. It is not much to write home about, but right now, Tevos does not know what is truly important, the simple act of accepting the food and eating at the table could have a large impact on future relations, or it could have none at all, but when dealing with absolute unknowns, you must treat all factors as unknowns. After retiring from the evening meal, Tevos finds herself back in Benezzia's room and has turned the entertainment device back on, and after a moment of watching the device, she frowns a little. The program being broadcasted is currently displaying something she would expect to find on any 'good' Turian owned entertainment channel, and that is a recruitment advert. What worries Tevos is not the fact that the Humans are pushing a recruitment advert, she would expect anyone else to do the same in their shoes, but it was how evidently they were pushing for recruitment in response to her own people. "I do not know about you," Benezzia says to Tevos after a second of watching some of the recruitment advert, "But I did not come all this way to watch an obvious military video. Shall we visit this holo-suite or Gym?"

Tevos blinks and soon she finds herself walking into a room where this supposed holo-suite is located, but inside she finds a mostly empty room with a large ring in the middle. Around the ring is a few of the human soldiers, they all appear to be cheering a person in the middle who is exchanging blows with an unusually dressed human in maroon plated armour that features a helmet supporting a grotesque faceplate. It is an odd sight to the Asari as the armour looks like it would be suitable in pre-gunpowder warfare. The humans cheer on the unarmoured person who must be one of their own for a few moments till the armour-clad human has their comrade on the floor and in a yield position.

Tevos and Benezzia share a look before blinking to one another, while Asari may not like fighting, they do actually enjoy sparring, and believe it or not but sparring with short swords, albeit blunted swords, is a large sport on Asari worlds, and to be a champion in the sport would make you a hero to many Asari. After the defeated human removes themselves from the ring another steps in, but once more the unarmoured human is quickly incapacitated. Yet another figure steps into the ring, but instead of quickly sub coming to the armoured entity, this match lasts considerably longer, but once more the armoured figure prevails, and Tevos begins to suspect that maybe this armoured figure is not actually a Human, because the other humans are visibly exhausting themselves, but this armoured one does not seem to be affected by exhaustion at all.

The next contender in the ring, however, is victorious and Tevos watches with some amazement as the armoured warrior bows to the human and then vanishes into thin air, all to be replaced by a different warrior. Tevos is particularly impressed by the holographic technology - it is not that the Citadel does not have it, to the contrary, the Citadel does have some particularly advanced and impressive holo technology, but, what the Citadel lacks is the hard light technology that allows these humans to spar as they are doing so now. The next warrior to appear in the ring is different to the first plated armour warrior, this one has brass body armour over their torso, which outlines their muscular features, metal greeves, and an intricately designed helmet featuring some red feathers on the top. In one hand is a large circular shield, and in the other is a large spear.

"Shall we move on?" Benezzia asks, and Tevos blinks as she makes sure she has saved some footage of the human sparring. With some footage safely stored in her omni-tool, Tevos takes the lead in leaving the room, and it does not take long for the Asari duo to find their way to the bar, because as they got close, they could hear some gentle music being played on what could be a mix of brass and stringed instruments, and the sounds guided them without the need for directions. Arriving at the bar Tevos and Benezzia poke their head through the door, and Tevos witnesses a group of five people on a stage, dressed in white, and playing an array of instruments, two of the people are playing prominent brass instruments, one is playing a basic stringed instrument, its design has been found in most advanced civilisations, her own included, and one is singing, but one is playing a large instrument neither Benezzia or Tevos have seen before. "Shall we?" Tevos asks and Benezzia blinks, so Tevos leads the way to a table at the back of the room, where they could observe, but not be in the spotlight themselves.

The smooth music type is known to Tevos, but it is not a type that is played much in Citadel or Asari space, although Tevos does not complain, it is the type of music which allows your foot to get a mind of its own and tap along with the melodic beat; with this in mind Tevos begins to set her omni-tool to record, this is some local culture she could 'sell' to her people to advertise the humans and help them be accepted into the wider galactic community. As the band do their thing Tevos looks around the room, at the opposite side of the room, and in an equally dark corner to her own is the President, he seems to be in his own world as he works on some sort of contraption, typing away on what Tevos must assume is a keyboard, he seems oblivious that she is even there. Along the back wall, there is what can only be a bar, it has many bottled drinks displayed behind it, and a man impeccably dressed waiting to serve. In the centre of the room, and sat before the band, is a few different personnel, the first is a green-haired marine - she is sat on a table by her own, and with a mostly empty drink, then there are a few others sat on a circular table, a vast array of drinks are on the table, another table has the Safari Expert on.

As the jazz band continues to play, Tevos turns to Benezzia, "I was thinking, today could have ended incredibly differently had the Humans not worked out I was suffering and provided the white drink."

"Yes," Benezzia concurs, "I have also been thinking of this, but I think it must be worse for the humans, they invited us here and as it turns out, one of their food items is not palatable to ourselves. Had they not worked out the issue, and you reported ill, it could have easily caused a diplomatic incident."

"Yes," Tevos blinks, "I could imagine Quirinus would have been quick to demand our immediate return."

"Hmm," Benezzia humms in response. "First Contacts are infamous for small things going wrong, and I believe we truly did dodge a bullet today."

As the band begins to play another song Tevos is distracted as a man approaches with a tray of drinks, and looking at the man Tevos quickly realises that it is the President. The man says a few words to Benezzia before placing the drinks down and leaving, allowing Tevos to inquire, "What did he say?"

"Something about it being on the building, and to enjoy. I believe he must have used a colloquialism."

"Hmm," Tevos humms to herself before scanning the drinks and then picking up a glass of water, not wanting a foggy head for tomorrow. After maybe half a dozen songs the band eventually steps down from the stage, their instruments, however, are still on stands, making Tevos believe they may be back. "Shall we have a look at the boxy instrument?" Benezzia asks of Tevos, because just like Tevos, the T'soni has been listening to the sounds it has been producing and has come most interested in it.

Tevos blinks and stands with Benezzia to approach the instrument, and it would seem to the Asari that despite its boxy design, it is, in fact, a stringed instrument. The sheer amount of sounds it must be able to produce slightly bewilders Tevos, making her think she has underestimated the skills of the human that was playing it earlier. As Tevos begins to take a scan of the large device she hears the presidents voice and turns to see him talking with Benezzia. The two exchange a few words, with the President quite often gesturing towards the unknown instrument, but just as quickly as the President arrived, he seemed to finish the conversation and dissapear, leaving Benezzia to say, "Apparently, this device is called a Piano."

Sitting back down a short while later, Tevos predictions that the band is not finished is proven correct when the band returns, and they play a suspicious amount of songs that are piano-heavy, no doubt the President has had something to do with that, Tevos thinks.

/.../

The next morning started with breakfast just after sunrise, the food was not as extravagant as the previous night, but this surprises next to no one in the away team, mostly because breakfast to all known species is a light, and usually, an easy to prepare meal that sets them up for the day ahead.

After consuming her breakfast, which was once more heavy in animal products, Tevos is ushered outside with the rest of her people to find three open-air cars are waiting for them, resulting in Tevos musing to herself that she hopes it does not rain because she has not packed any rain-resistant clothing. Tevos quickly finds herself climbing into the first car with Benezzia and Corvinus, along with the Tour Guide, the President and the green-haired human. After a quick explanation from the tour guide that the entire area they are in is currently a wildlife reserve, meaning some animal sightings are not guaranteed, the cars begin to move, and from the sound of the car's engine, Tevos must conclude that they are using electric motors.

As they drive, Benezzia and the guide exchange a good amount of words before Benezzia turns to Tevos and Corvinus, "Our guide was just explaining that the first animals we are going to see are 'monkeys'. They are known to be mischevious and steal items from people." Tevos subconsciously feels for her omni-tool and feels some relief knowing that it is still there.

It is not long after the explanation that the cars slowly come to a stop near a lone tree, and a quick look at the branches allows Tevos to see the creatures they have come for, they are small Vorak like creatures, but they have far more dense coats of fur over them. It takes no more than 20 seconds after the car has come to a stop for one of the 'monkeys' to position itself on top of the car and peer inside to see what its occupants have brought for it. The guide slowly reaches out for the monkey, but it quickly comes clear that the guide is not reaching for the monkey, but rather offering the creature something, as it tentatively pinches something from out of his open hand and begins to eat from it. The guide smiles before turning to Benezzia and offering her some food items that look like nuts of some sort.

It is not long till the cars are swarmed with a dozen of the creatures, all of them taking food from people's hands, and heaving a comotion from the car behind Tevos turns just in time to see a Turian with one of these monkeys on his shoulder. The Turian appears stiff and uncertain, but thankfully, it is not looking like it is about to tear the monkey apart. As Tevos continues to look away she hears Benezzia call her name quitely, and looking towards the Matriarch, Tevos notices that she too has found one of these monkeys climbing over her, the creature is clinging to her right arm with one of its arms and both its legs, and with its other arm it is taking the food from her hand.

Hearing the guide say something, Benezzia then quietly says to Tevos, "Picture, picture." Getting the hint, Tevos pulls her omni-tool up, with the aim of getting a picture, but before she could take the photo the monkey has moved on, this time it is climbing on Corvinus. The Turian does not look happy to have become a climbing frame for the animal, but with a little persuasion from Tevos, the man smiles for a photo. By the time they come to move on and see the next animals the humans want to show them, almost everyone from the away team has had a photo taken with a monkey. In a few of the photos, there are humans and people from her away team, and Tevos knows for certain that these photos can be used to help show the humans off to the rest of the galaxy. Sure, the picture will show nothing more than her own people and the unknown humans bonding over something as simple as a monkey crawling over them in an attempt to reach food, but this type of content sells.

Soon, the small convoy roll to a stop at a new location, where the guide speaks with a hushed voice as he points out over a plain of mostly barren land. Looking with squinted eyes Tevos at first thinks the humans are pointing to some horned creatures but the Asari is quickly amazed as she watches a pack of varren like creatures emerge from some long grass and act as a pack to hunt the horned creatures. Tevos notes to herself that she does not like these 'Hyena' creatures so much.

The next animal on the agenda is apparently the largest land creature on this planet, and soon Tevos is looking down a 'Elephant', and Tevos is certain it is the largest land creature she has seen off Dekuuna, but what scares her the most is not its size, rather it is how quickly these land leviathans can apparently move. Should it decide to charge her, Tevos does not think she could survive its wrath without a healthy dose of biotics to back her. To Tevos's slight horror she is offered a ride on the creatures, where she spends approximately 20 minutes on the back of one, and Tevos can not help but think they seem far larger when you are sitting on their back. Fortunately, riding the creatures does provide for a good photo opportunity, however, so Tevos takes some rejoice in this fact.

After riding the elephants to a peaceful spot overlooking a river came lunch in the form of a 'barbeque', which was primarily meat products once more, before the adventure started again. The first stop was an indoor pen area, where Tevos comes face to face with a dozen birds, the one which stands out to her the most has large claws, a powerful looking beak, a large wingspan, and white feathers on its head. After a few moments to gawk at the bird, the group are taken outside, where a display shows the various birds swooping down to collect some prey. At the end of the demonstration, there is an oppotunity for a photoshoot, and Tevos is slightly amused by how the Turians are far more interested with the birds than any other creature they have come across yet - she is sure the Higherarchy will be getting a full report on them shortly - after all the logo for the Turian Hierarchy is a bird with a planet in each of its three claws.

The rest of the afternoon passes quickly, with horses, Lions, Meerkats, Otters, Panda's, Lizards and Hippos all making an appearance, but Tevos begins to suspect that the most important creatures are yet to come, she does not know why she suspects this, but something in her stomach tells her that it is true. Eventually, as the day nears an end, they are taken back to the hotel, where they are ushered into another room. The guide stands near the centre of the small room and tells Benezzia about some creatures, and Benezzia relays it on to the rest of the group. The name of the first creature, Tevos is told, is "Man's best friend," or "Dog," for short. After the brief introduction, a small handful of dogs are introduced to the room and a few humans begin to play with them, throwing balls, and physically touching them. As they play Benezzia speaks again, having been talking to the guide. "These creatures are supposed to be incredibly important to humans. They are said to become family when adopted. There is a lot of emphasis on their importance to humanity."

Tevos is not overly surprised by this, other species are known to keep pets, mostly the Krogan and their varren, and these dogs, despite coming in many shapes and sizes if the small selection of dogs in this room is anything to go by, look similar to varren in many aspects. What Tevos is glad to see, however, is how the dogs seem to be far more friendly, and far easier on the eyes - varren lack the fur and their skin is often crisscrossed with scars from battles they have been in. After a few moments Tevos is offered with the rest of her team to play with the creatures, and Tevos is more than glad for the opportunity to try interacting with the creatures if they are as important as the humans say they are. She also realises that if they are as important as the humans say, then she needs to try her best to make a good impression with the creatures. For her own part, playing with the dogs was an easy task, a few words of command got the dogs to drop their toys, and the dogs didn't seem to need any other instruction. They did, Tevos notes, seem to have an uncanny ability to read her thoughts, and act on it, they seemed incredibly capable of knowing when she was going to pick up the ball, where she was going to throw it, and when to back off. The Turians and Salarians did not seem to have as much luck, however, and the dogs were more apprehensive of them, maybe, Tevos thinks, this is in part due to how similar her own species is to the Humans.

After a while Tevos has to admit to herself that the creatures are playful, and she can see why the humans would want to keep them around, but the door to the room opens and Tevos quickly concludes that dogs will come a common pet across the galaxy, the puppies will provide many photo opportunities that she is sure will make the Asari crave them.

The second creature introduced once all the dogs are removed from the room are 'Cats', and while Tevos does admit they have an appeal to them, she quietly prefers the dogs.

/.../

Meanwhile

Maiden Rhea steadies herself as the lift comes to a halt on the top floor of the building and then prepares herself for the inevitable shove from the Krogan behind her when it wants her to move, and sure enough, the shove comes, forcing Rhea to follow the Drell that has captured her out of the lift and into a grand room. Rhea quickly glances around the room, and within a single glance, Rhea feels some dread enter her stomach. The room is grand, it has high ceilings, gold plated ornaments, a view across the entire city they have landed in and many fancy entertainment devices - and this can only mean one thing. Rhea quickly comes to a conclusion that whoever this room belongs to, it is probably a part of the Batarian aristocracy - which should not surprise her, the Batarian aristocracy are known for their purchase of rare slaves; something Rhea is sure the unknown alien behind her will be. This is terrible news to Rhea as the richer a slave owner, the more sophisticated is the technology which prevents slaves from escaping. As they come to a halt in the middle of the room, the Batarian offers the Drell a seat in a fancy green lounge chair, but Rhea is not afforded such luxury and instead finds herself forced down onto her knees with the unknown, not that she suspected any less from Slavers.

Whoever they are here to meet, it is obviously not the Batarian that lead them to their current location as a silence quickly forms between him and the Drell till a Krogan from behind says, "I can never remember security being this tight. Was it like this last time you were here?" The comment is aimed at the other Krogan.

The Batarian who is sitting with the Drell must have heard this so interrupts the Krogans to say, "With the approaching fleet, all hands have been called into service."

"Approaching fleet?" A Krogan replies back, "Who and how large are we talking?"

"A full Citadel battlegroup, commanded by the war criminal Caredeus Fannus. At last count, there are 7 dreadnoughts, including the Destiny Ascension." Rhea's eyes widen at the announcement, she knows the Primarch's Chosen is only sent on critical missions, and the Asari's pride vessel, the Destiny Ascension rarely leaves Citadel or Asari space. Whatever the Citadel are planning, it has certainly got a conflict of some kind in mind, and it plans on 'overkill'.

Rhea continues to silently listen as the Krogan releases a deep rumble, something aking to a sound of astonishment, "Been a long time since something that large was mustered. Where it heading?"

"You will find the correct terminology is 'Where is it heading' to which the answer is this region," The Batarian replies, "In response, the Hegemony is said to be sending a fleet."

"Nothing stopping that coalition battlegroup." The Krogan retorts, knowing the Batarian fleets are not as good as the Batarians like to think they are. "But I doubt..." The Krogan stops speaking as another Batarian that is finely dressed and surrounded by two guards enters the room; the Krogan Rhea thinks, probably knows he will be silenced if he keeps speaking.

The first Batarian who has brought them to this grand room stands before quickly gesturing for the Drell to follow suit, and then the first Batarian says, "Caretaker Tlalok, may I present Free Lancer Cadmael; he has brought a unique specimen for your consideration."

The second Batarian quickly flashes the unknown a curious look before turning to the Drell, "I do not recognise this species. Where did you find it?"

The Drell gives it a moment before saying, "We chased a Citadel vessel near relay 315. We found this in a gas giant on some sort of mining station." Rhea furiously thinks, and comes to the quick realisation that the Drell is not telling the truth, Relay 315 is in rather dull space with only a few barren rocks that barely classify as planets; meaning there are no gas giants near relay 315.

"Fascinating." The Batarian Caretaker says before approaching the unknown where it grabs it under the neck and forces it to look him in the eyes. "Very unique eyes, almost Quarian with how they dimly glow, but very pretty." Rhea must admit the unknown does have beautiful eyes, as do most Quarians, but the fact it glows purple is very unique; Quarians eyes, however, do not glow as bright as their masks make it seem, the masks amplifies the glow to help Quarians show their expressions. "Can it speak?"

"It can, but it is an unknown language."

"I see, I see," Muses the Batarian before dropping the unknown alien and turning his head to Rhea, "This one was pretty. What happened to its nose?"

The Drell takes a small pause before saying, "It required some extra encouragement in realising that escape is not an option."

The Batarian nods its head, "A Common story." The Batarian stops talking to the Drell and turns its attention back to Rhea to say, "You, Citizen code."

Rhea knows that revealing her Citadel Citizen Code could work for her, and against her, if she tells the truth then the Batarian will research her and then it is just as likely to sell her back to her mother for an extortionate price as he is to simply kill her, but after a moment to consider Rhea says "A537910X." She knows the Batarians will beat it out of her at some point, and she has no other code to give.

The first Batarian types this code into his omni tool before visibly grimacing and saying to the second Batarian, "Her mother is Matriarch Alena T'Vos."

Rhea watches as the second Batarian becomes very stiff before seemingly losing whatever fright he had, and the Drell momentarily seems to be a little surprised by the announcement. "Fascinating." The Batarian turns to another in the room to say, "Validate it." Without waiting for anything to be done the Batarian then turns to the Drell, and says, "Two very unique specimens indeed, so let us talk business."

The Drell does not dither, "250 Thousand for the Asari, and 10 Million for the unknown."

The Batarian nods its head a few times before replying, saying, "You know, the Citadel has released a bounty for information on a small fleet of vessels which matches your own fleets description, and checking your flight logs puts you in the vicinity of the dead Prothean planet where you were said to be operating."

Rhea watches as the Drell narrows his eyes, "Does the law in Batarian space not decree that we have immunity from such prosecutions when trading such items? If you failed to live up to such a saying, I suspect you would lose a lot of custom to rival trading establishments."

"Very true," The Batarian concedes, "However," The Batarian claps his hands twice, and a dozen armed Batarians enter the room from the elevator, "I noticed your unique product the moment you left the airlock, so I got curious some more and studied your flight logs in further depth. You have been through an uncharted Relay. Our laws do not protect you against this, and thus you have two options. Option one is you leave this room without a single credit, and find out how nasty a vortex filled with unpaid Krogan can be, or you can take your chances against my finest."

After a long heated discussion in which Rhea expected the Krogan immediately behind her to rip a Batarian in half at on point, Rhea's captors leave the room with nothing, leaving Rhea, the unknown and a few Batarians in the room. After the doors to the lift shut with Rhea's captors inside the first Batarian says, "I can confirm that the Asari is who she says she is. Apparently, she ran away from home young, and you know who has been searching for her since."

The second Batarian walks back and forth a little before saying, "Induct and glove her, and send a demand for 1 Million credits."

"Caretaker," The first Batarian says slowly, "Is it wise to anger the woman who dropped a dirty bomb on a run-away Turian colony so she could watch them die slowly of radiation sickness all because they disrespected her offer of protection? The same woman who fed Hanar to Varren because she was bored? The Asari is as cruel as God Niwitih himself."

"We are not a run away colony." The second Batarian dismisses with a waft of his hand, "And we have the defences of the Hegemony and her armies behind us, and for now, we are still a Citadel affiliated species. She wouldn't dare attack us, it would cause the Citadel to go to war with the Terminus systems."

"How long do you suspect we will be a part of the Citadel Coalition?" Asks the first Batarian, "Their fleet is almost upon us."

"Their fleet isn't here for us," The second Batarian replies as he approaches the unknown alien and looks in its eyes, "It is here for them; the Citadel has a first contact situation, and I will wager they have found something they do not like. I will let my cousin know on Khar'shan, and we can play the game." Batarian stocks are currently through the floor due to people expecting an invasion from the Citadel, so with this in mind people could easily gain a lot from the current situation. As war is not likely on the agenda anymore, Tlalok fears that once this information is known by the wider galaxies, many Batarian companies could have vast stakes bought up by stronger alien economies.

"As you wish," Rhea hears the first Batarian reply to the Caretaker, "I will prepare the long-range communications room for your imminent conversation."

"Yes yes," The second responds, "But first, have these seen to, have them taken to the appropriate wing."

The first Batarian brings his hands in front of him and displays them to the Caretaker, a Batarian show of respect, before issuing an order to some Batarians behind Rhea. Soon Rhea finds she is being forced onto her feet with the unknown and they are being marched through the room to a small wooden door. After unlocking the door Rhea is pushed through, as is the unknown, and looking around inside Rhea finds yet another Asari, a female Quarian, and a Salarian, all of who have stood by the bottom of their beds at attention and looking towards the door she entered. On top of the sentient beings, there is also a wide variety of exercise machines and a few wardrobes. "You," A Batarian says while pointing to the other Asari in the room, "Induct them."

"Without delay," The Asari who is potentially a Matriarch says before breaking her stance and moving towards Rhea as the Batarians leave the room. "Please come," The Asari says to Rhea while reaching out for a hand, "And I will fix your nose."

Rhea had almost forgotten about the dull ache in her nose and reluctantly blinks as she walks with the Asari who sits her down on an empty bed, for now, the unknown has been left alone, it seems content enough to just look around - which considering its situation amazes Rhea, the thing should be terrified. "What is the other thing?" The Asari asks Rhea, "We do not get the news often, so its discovery is new to me."

"I do not know." Rhea confesses, "It is new to me too, the Batarians were talking about a potential first contact."

"Can we communicate with it?" She then asks Rhea, to which Rhea clenches her fists slightly, "Well, that will make things complicated. Anyhow, I realise I have not introduced myself, I am Aesop, the Quarian is Nema Vas Ruire eil-Liux, the daughter of an Admiral in the Migrant fleet, and the Salarian is Adilynn, the daughter of a Salarian aristocrat."

Rhea thinks for a moment, a female Quarian is rare, they rarely go on their pilgrimage in order to help populate the species, and the daughter of a Salarain aristocrat is also going to be a 'trophy' slave, so what is so special about the Asari, "The Salarian and Quarian are worth something, either for being rare or who they are, and the unknown is very rare, so why are you here?"

The Asari smiles for a few seconds before holding her gloved hand out, "I am a grade 5 Ardat-Yakshi, I could ask the same question of yourself..."

Rhea gulps, realising that she is sitting next to a very dangerous, and very powerful Ardat-Yakshi. Level 5 Ardat-Yakshi's are almost unheard of, some even think they are myth, they are supposed to be able to kill with a mere brush of a hand, and have biotics powerful enough to make the most stalwart of Matriarchs tremble in their boots, but worse still is the supposed addiction these Asari have with melding. Eventually, Rhea replies, "Rhea, Rhea T'vos, daughter of Alena T'vos."

"Oh," Aesop replies with some surprise, "I was not expecting that." The Asari looks away momentarily to see the unknown test a bed out before sitting down on it. "I suspect our Master will try and sell you for an extortionate price."

Rhea blinks, "Yes, I overheard 1 million. My mother will .Not. pay it."

"I am sorry to hear it." Aesop then looks to the Salarain and says, "Adilynn, please see to our other new fellow."

Once Aesop finishes speaking to the Salarian and turns her attention back to herself, Rhea blinks, "I fear it will bring excessive violence to this place. I have been running away from my mother for the last decade, and she has moved many rocks searching for me."

Aesop looks around before whispering, "Then I can hope." Aesop then slowly reaches up to Rhea's nose, "This will hurt for a second." The Asari does not give any delay in pulling Rhea's nose down, causing a hot pain to form in Rhea's nose, but true to Aesop's words the pain quickly dissipates. Aesop gives Rhea a few moments to fight the pain before saying, "Now, you need to know a few rules of this Jire place," Jire in Asari mythology is a hellish place. "First of all, and most importantly, as an Asari you will need to wear a pair of gloves that come past your elbow at all times, Master is very adamant about this rule, he has an unfounded fear that we will try to manipulate him with our touch. If we leave this room, we are to adhere to a strict dress code, no exception, and you are to never look the Master in the eyes, he will beat you severely for this. If you try to use your biotics, you will also be severely beaten, if not killed, but I suspect Master will be arranging a biotic dampener for you, especially if you are who you say you are."

"Unfortunately I am," Rhea replies with a sigh, "But may I ask, you are a grade 5 Ardat, don't you need to meld?"

Aesop reluctantly blinks her eyes, "Master sees to my needs, meaning you are safe in my presence if that is your fear. Now please, you must put these gloves on for your own well being." Aesop reaches into a nearby wardrobe and takes some gloves out to hand to Rhea. Rhea looks down at the plain white gloves for a few moments before reluctantly pulling the gloves on and up past her elbow.

"You will get used to them," Aesop says with some sorrow in her voice, "But I must go on with the other rules, of which there are many." Rhea mentally prepares herself for the list, and by the end, she has no clue on how she will follow them all, never mind the unknown who can't speak a single communicable word.

/.../

Earth - UNSC

"Sir, UDP is waiting for your authorisation."

A Colonel looks to a vast array of screens that display dozens of different types of data and video feeds from an Ultron Defense Platform. Currently, the device is sat looking at the large construct that the aliens have used to enter the solar system. With a small nod, the Colonel says, "Let's do it."

The plan is simple, one of Ultrons platforms will perform a strafing pass, in an attempt to find a weakness in the structure, so that if push comes to shove, Ultron knows how to destroy the object.

"Sir, Ultron is caught in a gravity well."

"How?" A scientist says who is sat nearby, "We took the devices gravity well into consideration."

"Well I'm..." The people in the room go silent as the structure lashes out with what seems to be an arc of electricity, and before anyone can react Ultron's defence platform is going on a journey through something that will have scientists scratching their head for years to come

**Cheers**


	8. Chapter 8

**RR**

** : Yeah, I get that in any situation like this you would be very careful and want to be ready, especially considering the history of ME, so I agree, ready fleets, but too many just want to see blood imo. **

**Dutchsoldier: Yes, a single path technology wise can still have many many differences. Look at programming langauge for example. A lot of languages do the same thing, and work on similiar principles, but you can't easily have a program designed with C to just start interacting with Java without some work. I get that some tech in game, e.g the mass effect engine, is a limit on how we can travel, and the principles are going to be the same because physics is the same. **

**Kira-117 and Ralmon: Cheers for taking the time to write an indepth review, you two have pointed out some good stuff that I need to think about. The defence platform was sent because it can operate on its own, and Humanity can spare it. The fleets are more worried about the fleet above earth that they aren't entirely sure are friendly. Also, the bit about the adverts, I will eat my hat if they go anywhere, yes we may have streaming services now that limit them, but if they were watching a news program what is to say that the advert wasn't a filler between segments? **

The President thanks a waiter for bringing him a large tray containing a jug of coffee, milk and sugar as he sits down in a chair in front of a large wooden table that he is about to conduct an important meeting over. While many would expect the President would want the coffee pre-made, to an exact standard, he instead prefers to make it himself, deciding how much milk, and how much sugar to add depending on his mood - it is a little thing that the President thinks will help to keep him grounded.

"Mr President," An aid calls to him once he has made himself a cup of coffee, "When you are ready."

The President nods after a sip of his brew, and in a few seconds 6 holographic figures soon join him around his large wooden table, each figure pays the correct compliments before the President makes his intention for this meeting clear. "I do not have long, so let's make this quick."

The six figures around the table represent a different branch of the government, each of whom he wants a debrief from. The first to reply is the man in charge of the UNSC - humanities space assets. "Currently, all available ships we have are now in mission." This means that the ships are no longer docked, and are ready for a fight if it comes to it. "Most of our assets are surrounding the fleet above Earth, with the most notable asset being the Planetary Assault Craft (PAC) Everest, helmed by Admiral Hackett. PAC Hope and Carrier Newtown should be in orbit in the next 18 hours. We are planning on bringing a few mothballed ships online in the next few days, including the Dreadnought Jormungand, and we have recalled ex-servicemen to help operate them. Current recruitment efforts are also providing a strong source of manpower, freeing suitably qualified and experienced personnel from harbour duties and other related duties to man ships. Our largest concern at the moment is the dockyards are beginning to run out of materials, with our latest estimates stipulating all docks will run out of materials completely by Tuesday next week. If we want to continue production of Ultron Defence Platforms, or other space assets, we need to restart our material deliveries from Jupiter or find a source local to Earth."

Currently, all non-military spacecraft are banned from transitting space, this is to help the military see any alien craft, and to create a battlespace that is free from civilians, but it is a costly endeavour. The President nods a few times before saying, "Would any have of you have objections if we allow the deliveries of critical supplies?" With no overly concerning issues raised, the President moves to the next man in the room, "How are our armies looking?"

"Stretched thin," The man in charge replies, "But like the UNSC we are increasing our manpower by the day; currently our recruitment services are being inundated with people signing up to serve, the people who pushed out the latest recruitment adverts really need recognition for their efforts. In order to combat this, I am pushing proposals for new phase 1 training establishments, and an increase in civil servants to help process the new recruits."

The President looks over some documents that have landed onto his data-pad, which contain plans for new phase 1 establishments, before nodding, "You have the green light." The President didn't even check to see how much this would cost. "Anything else?"

The man nods, "We are also now in full control of the police forces, which are receiving training on what to do should the worst come true."

"Excellent," The President replies, "The armed forces are going to need all the help they can get. Cerberus? How are you progressing?"

A Woman leans slightly further forward in her chair before replying, "Pyso ops are currently working well, we are seeing large increases in nationalism which are helping recruitment efforts." Looking to another person in the room who is in charge of the civilian response, the woman then continues, "We could increase the effectiveness of our ops if you could bring the world cup to the left. We could use the sports TV broadcasting to push our messages."

The man Cerberus talks to nods before replying to her, "We have been considering bringing the event forward, it would help people focus on something else."

The President taps his fingers on the desk a few times before saying, "If I remember correctly, the cup is not supposed to start for another month or two; people will not be able to get tickets, transport, accommodation and so on. Are you sure this would be a good idea?"

Once more it is Cerberus who replies, "The beauty about the sport is there are enough people who could and will make the dedication to travel for the new dates, and the change in dates can easily be explained so that the event misses the regions hot summer."

The President frowns a little, he does not like the idea, "Convincing the organisation to change will also be..."

"Easy," Cerberus says, "They are as corrupt as you can get, all they think about is money money money. Assure them a temporary tax relief, and they will be eating from your hand."

The President blows out a deep breath before nodding, "Then let's do it, your psyops are important enough to rearrange the tournament. Anything else?"

"Yes. We have concerning news from our investigation of the alien structure. We sent an unmanned drone to investigate it further, and it is now located here." The woman associated with Cerberus pushes a picture of the galaxy to the Presidents data-pad. "The platform arrived at another one of these constructs, which is identical to the one orbiting Pluto. We believe the UDP was captured in some sort of massless tunnel between these constructs and propelled at extreme speeds."

The President looks down to his data-pad which now displays a map of the galaxy. Finding Earth, the President notices a few things; first of all he can see the 3 failed attempts to colonies solar systems a few light-years from Sol, which resulted in way too many dead or missing to try again without advances in FTL technology, and the current lone successful attempt at extra-solar colonisation. He can see the immediate surrounding systems that are being explored by Cube Sats, and the research stations in dark space between solar systems. It takes the man a few seconds to find the lone Defence Platform. "Is this accurate?" The Defence Platform is nearly two thousand light-years away.

"We double and triple checked. The platform is 1,987 Light Years away. It took a total of three hours to get there."

The President places the data-pad down on the table in front of him, before asking, "How powerful are these beings to have created a means of travel so fast?"

"We do not believe these... massless relays are the aliens own construct. Their design is very alien to the limited sample of alien vessels we have seen, and from Ultron's readings, far older. Maybe hundreds of millions of years old."

The President frowns at the supposed age before saying, "Have that double checked, I find it hard to believe, but moving on what concerns me the most is the aliens can obviously enter our system from extreme distances using these constructs. Can we destroy it? End their means of travel into our system?"

The UNSC representative replies to this question, "We have already considered this. It is manipulating unfathomable amounts of energy to do what it does, if we destroy it, we could release that energy into our solar system. We do not know if even with our planetary defences if we could survive that amount of energy. If we wanted to destroy this thing, I would advise doing it at the other side, where ever it connects to."

"No," The Cerberus representative adds, "The devices are evidently interlinked, destroying either one could have repercussions on the other. We do not understand them enough to tamper with them - yet."

"Could we move it out of Sol then?"

"We are dealing with constructs far beyond our understanding," Cerberus responds, "The best I could advise is we place a guard on the far side to buy us three hours warning notice before any war fleet could enter our home system."

"We could send some additional Ultron Platforms," UNSC says, "We're pushing 50 of them out every 2 hours, and we don't have the ships to spare otherwise."

"Send fifty." The President decides, knowing that the 50 could deal some serious damage if used correctly, "But I don't want them discovered unless they absolutely need to make their presence known."

"I'll see to it," The man in charge of UNSC says.

The President turns back to Cerberus, "Anything else to report? How is our Ava doing?"

The woman quickly reads a few notes from a notepad before responding, "We have some interesting discoveries. First of all two new species," The woman pushes two photos to the Presidents data-pad, "One we are unofficially calling 'Four Eyes', and the other as simply 'Suits'. They have been discovered by Ava on a world 1 and a half days travel from Earth, at the aliens velocity. We are not entirely sure where this world is, however. From observing what Ava has been experiencing, we are almost certain she has been brought to a society that enslaves others." Once more some photos taken from Ava's vision appear on the Presidents data-pad. "I've highlighted a few interesting features which makes us believe this is the case."

The President looks over the data and grimly nods, "So, on our door step there is a species willing to enslave others." Bringing a hand to his forehead, the President rubs his skin in a soothing motion before saying, "And they now know where we are. I don't think we need to revisit the history books to know what could come next if they are more advanced." The President blows out a sigh before saying, "This information does not leave this room until we have compiled a robust plan on how to deal with this. Is there anything else from our robotic friend?"

"Nothing important enough for this meeting."

The President nods before refilling his coffee cup and directing his attention to another man, "How is the Civilian response?"

"We are mass stocking food, water, energy reserves and medicine as we speak and evacuation plans are being taught on local news channels. A lot of locations are struggling though, people are raiding stores for their own supplies, and frankly, a large percentage of the population do not believe we can contain this situation resulting with law enforcement being bogged down against people doing stupid things in the name of defending their families against potential invasions. The mass drive for military recruitment is not helping the situation, it is making a lot think the government is scared."

"Then they are not wrong," The President replies grimly, "Is there anything we can do to help? How are the latest videos going down?"

"The images of the aliens playing with the puppies and monkeys are helping," Admits the man in charge of the civilian response, "The video of the blue Alien and the monkey hanging off her is currently one of the most viewed videos going, with a lot of positive upvotes, we need more like it. It shows they are a little like us and I don't see any harm of showing some more of that on the TV. I also wonder if we can get them to answer questions from the public, get them to tell us where they are from, why they are here, and what on earth they are doing with a fleet above our home planet."

The UNSC representitve speaks up at this, "It has been a long time since we had a good parade, could show off our troops and let the people know they are well equipped, have the latest heavy armour front and centre. I imagine it would help with recruitment too."

Both the man in charge of the army and the civilian response shake their heads at the idea, but its the Army representative that speaks, "No, as much as I would love to have our heavy armour rumble down a city centre with waving flags like from times of old, we can't spare the manpower at the moment."

The man in charge of the civilian response nods in agreement before adding, "I also do not think this would go down well, the last time tanks were seen in a city on Earth was during the War."

The President places his coffee mug down before nodding and saying, "I concur, I will not have tanks on our streets. I do like the idea of having the public ask the aliens questions, however. Get me videos of people asking questions, and we will sit some of the aliens down and play the questions for them. Also, get them to ask about slavery, and see if we can direct questions relating to this newfound species."

"I've already done it, Mr President. Had some kids from a local school record questions for the aliens. Had them ask in Prothean too. I'm sending the questions to your data-pad now. I will need an hour or so to get some new questions relating to the new developments, however"

"Good, good, get them to me as soon as you can." The President says, wanting to get the aliens to answer the questions as soon as possible. "Economics, any advances or developments in your department?"

The woman in charge shakes her head, "The universal credit is continuing to drop, we are now anticipating it to stabilise at 1.6 Kilo Joules."

The President grimaces, with the credit dropping so low, vulnerable communities will need aid.

"Have we got anything in the works to help people out who are hit the hardest by this?"

"Yes," The advisor immediately responds.

"Good, I want the first draft of our response on my desk by Monday morning."

"I will make it so."

The President then turns to the last man in the room who has yet to say a word, "Energy sector, how are we looking?"

A man who looks far older than the rest leans forward in his chair, the President imagines if he listens hard enough, he would hear the squeak in the old man's bones. "Our energy reserves are being finely managed, but the production of Ultron Defence Platforms is proving to drain the reserves quicker than anticipated. We will need to start limiting electronic applications if we can't reinitialise energy deliveries from our mines around the sun."

The President sighs and nods, "Any objections if we reinitialise deliveries?"

The UNSC advisor speaks in response, "Yes, from a military perspective, those energy deliveries are highly volatile and have already been identified as vulnerabilities, if one was hit in combat it could do some serious damage. I would far rather not be able to use my sonar shower and automated toilet cleaner than have to provide a heavy escort to the deliveries, never mind deal with the consequences of a detonated energy delivery."

"I'm convinced," The President replies before turning his attention back to the old man, "Start thinking of implementing restrictions on the use of energy, and have a plan of action on my desk in two days time."

"If you do not mind, Mr President, I am not convinced." The person in control of the civilian response interrupts, "Rationing energy should be a last resort, it is a commodity that many will not take kindly to having restricted."

"And it will be a last resort," The President retorts, "But we need to be prepared."

/.../

Back at the hotel, Benezzia and Tevos blink to one another, both agreeing with their next set of actions. Leaving the holo-suite the duo move through the building till they find someone who can help them - the green mane soldier. Approaching the soldier who is currently doing some sort of exercise in the hotels' gym Benezzia clears her throat before saying, "Can you help?"

The soldier puts down a heavy-looking slab of metal before standing from her position. "With?" The soldier asks.

"I show," Benezzia replies before moving with Tevos to the holo-suite, there the T'soni gestures to a control panel, "Yesterday, people sparring. We want a try."

The Human narrows its eyes before approaching the control panel and tapping a few buttons, which results in a man in bronze armour and a helmet with red feathers appearing from thin air. "This is a Spartan." The green-haired human tells Benezzia, "Famous warrior, very dangerous."

Benezzia quickly turns to Tevos and translates, before asking, "Shall we?"

With a blink of confirmation, Benezzia approaches the warrior, who has now dug his spear into the sandy floor, allowing it to stand erect on its own, his shield has also been disbanded. Benezzia eyes the warrior in his eyes for a moment before bowing her head in its direction, a sign of respect. She then takes a moment to take a defensive posture. "How do we start?" She asks.

The human says something in a foreign language, and without a second pause the holographic figure is on top of Benezzia, laying into her with incredible strength and ferocity - it is only by the Asari's extraordinary experience that she does not immediately sub come to the entity. The inevitable eventually happens, however, and the Spartan kicks her to the floor, its strength being able to overcome Benezzia's skill. The computer-generated figure quickly returns to a neutral position, but its eyes constantly follow Benezzia as she stands back up. Accepting defeat the Asari allows the Councillor into the ring and stands back, only to witness something similar happen a short time later.

With Tevos defeated Benezzia turns to the human, "Wish to try?"

The human raises a brow before stepping into the sandy ring, and as soon as the battle commences the green haired human slams into the Spartan, where her inhuman strength and speed gifted to her through her augmentation process allows her to pick the man up like a rag doll and slam him into the ground - Benezzia has no doubts this human would have torn the Spartan into shreds had she not stood up afterwards instead.

This sequence of events continues multiple times, till an aid of the President comes in, with a proposal for Benezzia.

/.../

1 hour later

Tevos perks up when Benezzia re-enters her room, and shows a curious raised brow when the Asari collapses into a chair, "I hope it was not that bad." Tevos quips as she turns the human entertainment device off that she had been watching.

"No," Benezzia replies, "But there were some interesting questions that required a lot of thought."

"Do expand," Tevos says, having now fully turned her body to fully face the Asari Matriarch.

"They started easy," Benezzia admits, "Where are we from in the Milkyway galaxy - pointed out on a map, what is our species name, how many intelligent space capable species are there, those types of questions. Then they got probing, wanting to know what type of government we have, what do we think of the other species, so what did I think of the Turians and Salarians, what did the Turians think of the Salarians and Asari."

"Smart." Tevos interrupts, knowing that getting others to express their thoughts on yourself would more often than not get more honest responses, "What was the general response to that one?"

"For the Salarians I said the studious and curious, the Turians were inevitably the peacekeepers. The Salarians asked me to tell them that they viewed the Asari as communal, and the Turians as uncalculated risk-takers - I removed the uncalculated in my translation - and the Turians labelled ourselves as thorough, and the Salarians as calculating."

"Not the most appealing of descriptions," Tevos says as she blows out a sigh, "But not too bad. Anything else?"

"Yes," Benezzia replies, "They asked a few seemingly aimed questions, not something children would think of."

"Wait," Tevos stops Benezzia, "Children?"

"Yes, the Humans used children to ask the questions."

Tevos frowns at this development, using children in such a way could be seen as deceitful in Asari space - you would never use children to ask political or important questions. "Hmm, what were they asking?"

"They wanted to know what type of government we operated, if the Mass Relay in their space was our own creation, what is the current state of galactic affairs, and what are our thoughts on slavery."

Tevos grimaces at the last part, "Please don't tell me we have another advocate of slavery,"

"No," Benezzia says, "They seemed a little repulsed by the idea."

"Then they will not get along with the Batarians, which is a little concerning when we think of how close the nearest Batarian colony is," Tevos says, "But it is an unusual question to ask."

/.../

Meanwhile

Urdnot Wrex looks in the eyes of the little creature that is trapped between his fingers, its efforts to break free from his fingers will prove futile, and its attempts to make him feel guilty with its droopy eyes staring into his soul will also have no effect - its fate was sealed the moment he handed over the credits to the merchant.

Hearing more than a few chairs screech along the floor as their occupants rush to leave them, followed by a quiet commotion as people begin to leave the room Wrex begins to wonder who has entered the fast food restaurant, maybe it is the blood pack, or possibly that new Turian group that has been terrorising the lower levels of Omega recently. Either way, he does not care for them too much, not many are stupid enough to get in the bad books of a Krogan with obviously modern armour, a claymore shotgun strapped to their leg and more than a few scars on their muzzle.

Hearing the click of some heels approach Urdnot Wrex gains a small grin on his face, it has been too long since he and Alena T'Vos crossed paths. Wrex does not turn to face her; instead, he waits for the Asari to come into his line of vision - he will not grant her the satisfaction of having himself turning around to face her.

When she is stood in front of him and in his line of sight she says "Urdnot Wrex," With a cold voice; a voice which would typically have most others worried, but Wrex is not most others.

Placing the squirming animal between his fingers down on the table he is sat at, Wrex then sits back on his chair and adjusts his armour plates slightly before saying, "Long time no see, Alena. I hope you weren't dragged down to this stench of a restaurant for little me." The Krogan has a little chuckle after saying this, knowing it will grind on the Asari's gears.

Alena does not seem to be in a playful mood as she cuts straight to business, "Fifteen thousand credits if you leave immediately."

Wrex begins to laugh before bringing his hand down and capturing the escaping creature by its tail. "I know you Alena, better than you would like to admit. If your offering 15 thousand, the jobs worth 25, maybe 30. Who else is on your payroll?"

"Vasair, Bray, and myself."

Wrex tilts his head slightly and squints at the Asari before saying, "35 then." The fact Alena, or is it Aria now? Didn't dispute the price means that the Asari is willing to pay.

"Your lucky your game is as good as your talk. We leave now." As Alena turns to leave the restaurant Wrex stands, bites the head off the small creature, spits it onto the floor and then eats the body; had he consumed the head, he would be hallucinating vividly for the next hour, two at the worst. Most likely, the local vermin would eat the head, and Wrex chuckles a little at the idea of a pyjak hallucinating for the next year, having just eaten something strong enough to make a Krogan hallucinate.

**Cheers**


	9. Chapter 9

**So, we broke the 1K Followers. Whopee! Did not think this story would get that big. Thanks to all who followed, favorited or reviewed! **

**RR**

**tpx1: Thanks, Will do. **

**The Prime Cronos: I'm not entirely sure of if the Humans will be capable of it. At this moment in time, they are ignorant of its capability and uses. In fact, I have plans for what will happen with unplanned exposure to the element.**

**Matt Kennedy: Cheers. We won't have to wait too much longer to see how that part will play out. **

**Morlow: I've sort of hinted at a different means of travel last chapter with no sky cars over the city, but I had not thought of a gravity train like you suggested, I was thinking more along the lines of Elon's hyperloop. But, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. It may be making an appearance next chapter. **

**Ralmon: If you saw a car from a horse-drawn cart, you would say the designs are very different. They relays work on a very different mechanism, a one the in game governments do not understand. It is plausible, and in my mind likely, that you would look at the ships, and the relay, and think that they are not alike. Also, I agree, we need more Wrex, but not this chapter. **

**/.../**

Ship Master Camaxtli sits on the edge of his chair, his sensor expert warned him a short time ago that the Council Armada has entered the system and are now on an approach vector, which is something he has not been looking forward to. Cmaxtli knows that his vessel can do little to stop the council fleet, the fleet is simply far too big, and carrying far too much firepower. To even challenge the imposing fleet in numbers, the Hegemony would need to send the majority of their Primary, Secondary and Third fleet, which would leave only the Fourth and Fifth fleets to protect Batarian space. To challenge the firepower of the fleet, the Hegemony would need to send everything it had, and more.

Camaxtli's orders are simple, he is to find out the intent of the Citadel Fleet by placing his ship in front of it before the Citadel Armada can proceed any deeper into Batarian space. He is to warn them that proceeding any further would be viewed as 'Citadel Aggression' against the Hegemony, resulting in the immediate cessation of all critical resources from Batarian space, and patrol vessels pulled from the Traverse border.

Personally, Camaxtli does not think this is stern enough, the Citadel have sent not only the largest assembled fleet seen in his lifetime but a fleet under the command of the war criminal Careddeus Fanus into their space. Camaxtli scoffs at the idea of the Turians allowing Balak the Defender to enter Turian sovereign space with a fleet, it will never be allowed to happen. Actually, if it did happen, the Turians would undoubtedly send a fleet to intercept and destroy it, so why is this invasion of Batarian rights happening right now?

Hearing his comms specialist inhale a deep breath Camaxtli turns to face him, knowing the specialist has a tick which results in him taking a deep breath before speaking. "We are in range for light comms."

Camaxtli stands from his chair and takes a moment before giving the gesture to hail the fleet, and shortly a Turian appears on the viewscreen; the Turian is none other than the repulsive Primarch's Chosen. "Batarian vessel," The Turian states almost immediately, beating the Batarian to speak, as he continues to speak the Turian tilts his head to the right. The act of tipping one's head to the right would not be significant if it is not for the fact that in Batarian culture, tilting your head to the right when speaking to someone indicates you think you are of a higher class then them; Camaxtli knows that the Primarchs chosen will know this fact. "You are in the way of my fleet." The tilting of the head is highly insulting.

Camaxtli does not let the Turian see that its insult has affected him - he is sure this conversation will be broadcasted into Batarian space, so he needs to look impartial, he needs to make the Turian look like the aggressor. "You're in Batarian space." He simply replies after a moment to think, "You are trespassing against the Hegemony and his people." Unlike the Turians and the Asari, to Batarians a state and nation are referred to as the male gender.

The Turian is still tilting his head to the right, "We are acting on Council Order UN6401. Your Hegemony is an Associated Member of the Council, meaning by Council Law, your Hegemony is required to allow us safe passage to our destination."

"You bring an Armada with some of the heaviest and most powerful ships in known existence. The Hegemony would be stark raving mad to allow such a transgression without reason, a one you are yet to provide outside of some elusive Citadel edict we are yet to receive. Continuing down this path will have consequences, resources..."

The Turian is in no mood for Camixtli's response, cutting him off to say, "Madder yet is to attempt to veer this fleet. Carradeus out." The video feed is terminated on the Turian's side, leaving Camaxtli to his own thoughts. Deciding to stay put in his position, as ordered, he waits for the fleet to respond.

"Enemy fleet moving around our position." The sensor expert says, "They show no attempt to slow or accelerate." A common Turian tactic before using their main spinal guns is to pump considerable amounts of energy into their mass effect core, reducing their mass, this then allows them to accelerate to a speed which is unsustainable for anything longer than a few seconds. The burst of speed gained through reducing their mass ultimately results in the guns delivering a payload with considerably more velocity, reducing the chances of it being dodged.

"Understood," Camixtli responds, "All hands brace for the gravity wake." When a ship is powered by element zero it creates a large gravity wake behind it, and a ship caught in this wake can be pulled and pushed around as the gravity waves pass through the vessel. To be caught in the wake of a fleet just shy of 200 vessels strong is sure to throw Camixtli's small scout vessel around like it is a feather caught in the winds of a hurricane.

**/.../**

The Turian Councillor looks at himself in the mirror as a second Turian moves around him, inspecting the Councillor from numerous different angles to see what he has to work with, "So then, what will it be today?" Asks the second Turian.

The Councillor brings a hand up and touches his left mandible, his fingers focussing on the pointy end, "I would be correct in thinking the latest fashion is for a Coretta point and a Corvena edge, correct?"

The second turian tuts a few times before saying, "Not any longer I'm afraid, the latest is for a Corvena edge, featuring a Nivvena point while having a slight grove filed along the outer edge. I could show you if you would like?"

"Yes, please do." The Councillor asks, knowing from past experience that his groomer is typically on point with his suggestions.

With a few button presses, the mirror that Councillor Sparatus is looking into augments his image, displaying what the Councillor would look like with the suggested cut to his mandibles. The Councillor rotates his head in a few different directions, to see what he would look like from a few different angles before saying, "Yes, I like this. Tone down the tribal colours, however, I need enough to show my tribe, and type of military service served, but not enough to push it into people's faces."

"As you command," The Turian File Master replies as he reaches for a small file to begin his work. To a Turian, a well decorated, and well-groomed set of mandibles is a sign of not only wealth but of good health; meaning the Councillor is a regular customer of this File Master. A good mandible should always have a point on it capable of puncturing the skin, and a small edge which could tear meat from a Kohaka if needed, but the latest fashion tendencies dictates the design of these features - which regularly changes. The Turian Councillor can remember an old fashion which had almost a third of the mandible filed down so that the edge was sharp, thankfully, that fashion does not seem to be ready for a return any time soon.

As the File Master begins his work, the two engage in occasional chit chat, the conversations range from how busy work has been, to family life, and what is planned for that evening's meal. In a lull between conversation as the Turian File Master focusses heavily on his work, the Turian councillor looks into the mirror in front of him and focuses on where an entertainment device behind him is displaying some news channel. From the colours displayed and the logo at the top right of the screen, he knows the channel is a Volus one, which does not entirely surprise the Councillor. Sparatus knows most Turians outside of Turian space prefer Volus news channels, they tend to be the most impartial of all the known species.

"I heard it was us Turians that rescued the Asari Councillor, again," The File Master says as he steps back to look at the Councillors mandible he is working on, "At times, I don't know what the others would do without us."

"Yes, we did," Sparatus replies, "But we all have our place in the galaxy, it just so happens we carry the claws." It is a political answer, and both the File Master and the Councillor know it, but they also know it has a surprising amount of truth to it. Both Turians know that the Hierarchy would be lost without Asari technology and expertise, or the Salarian intelligence reports.

The two go back into a comfortable silence until the Councillor stands abruptly from his chair and approaches the entertainment device he has been watching in the mirror's reflection. Across the bottom of the screen is a banner which says "BREAKING NEWS - FIRST CONTACT" and above the banner plays a video of a Turian exchanging salutes with an unidentified alien - a one Sparatus knows to be called 'Human'. "Faex." The Councillor says, referencing a volcano on Palavern, its meaning to Turians is equivalent to the English word for excrement. "Cassia," The Councillor then says, calling to the File Master, "I need you to finish in quick time."

"Yes," The File Master initially replies, who is now also watching the entertainment device with great interest. "As you command. I can imagine you will have a lot of work on your plate because of this."

"Hmm," Sparatus muses as he takes to sitting in the File Masters chair, "You have no idea."

Half an hour later the file masters work is done and Sparatus is sat with the two other representatives of the Citadel Council. "So," Sparatus begins, getting straight down to business, "Who talked?"

"A Salarian known as Animalia, the STG are already ensuring..."

The Asari representative cuts the Salarian Councilor off, "Nothing. We act against them, and there will be a public outcry because he has leaked reports which stipulate our fears over the Humans. Primarily their ship armour, their stealth vessels and the potential capability of the Human weaponry. People are wanting to know why we haven't told them already considering the threat that this species pose to ourselves, and they will be outraged beyond calming if we silence this man."

"We have created ourselves a faex sandwich, and now we're eating it," Muses Sparatus, referencing to the fact they have withheld the information from the public. "Do we know what else the leak has had access to? What else they can reveal to the press?"

"They have had their hands on every report sent by Quirinus from the moment we found out," Valern admits, "The STG are trying to figure out exactly what else they are yet to leak."

"Right... Right." Sparatus pulls a hand down over his face before then asking, "So, the secret is out of the bag. What do we tell them?" Them obviously refers to the civilians of the galaxy.

"Well, what do we know?" Asks Irissa, "We know one of their worlds whereabouts, their species name, and the fact that they are the ones who rescued the Avians crew, not the QRF fleet. We also know some other little tidbits that have us worried about their military capabilities. What we should or could reveal, we actually have very little. We do not know how long they have been space capable, we do not know their population numbers, their homeworld, their character traits or political mindset."

Sparatus taps the table before saying, "We can not release their known whereabouts yet, the last thing we need is for the Batarians to become a problem."

"We doubt the Batarians will be a problem," Valern says, speaking up for the first time in a small while, "Studying past experiences would tell us they will sit back and learn new species before they begin territorial aggression."

"All due respect, Valern," Sparatus replies, "The discovered Human territory is firmly surrounded by Batarian space. Now, as I'm sure you know, Batarians are historically aggressive when dealing with trespassers or people who stray close to their turf, to the point they enslaved a Turian Colony ship which had strayed into space the Batarians arguably did not own. This was an event my predecessor almost green-lighted an invasion of Trebiea over if you remember correctly.."

"Yes." Irissa comments to this, "I remember we offered a great sum of resources to pacify the situation."

"Many Turians still call for a robust military response over it, compensated or not. My point is this, the Batarians will be problematic. If they can get a fleet there before our own arrives, then I dread to think what the result would be."

"Could they get a fleet there?" Asks Irissa.

Sparatus slowly blinks in the Asari's direction, "Yes, Salarian intelligence suggests the Batarians have cobbled a fleet together in response to the one under the command of the Primarchs Chosen, and now the news is out regarding the Humans, they know the fleet is for the Humans. My Military advisors believe the Batarians may head straight for the Human world in efforts to get concessions out of ourselves. We do not think they will be dense enough to try anything with the newcomers."

"If they did try something that really would be a thorn in the socks," Irissa responds, "Could we deter them, make the humans seem more dangerous than they are?"

"No," Sparatus dismisses, "That would be an awful idea. It would probably cause the Hegemony to send their fleet in the human direction just to protect itself."

"Not to mention," Valern adds, "It would also cause great concern among the public. We have already seen stocks take a dive from the leaks."

"Just how bad are the stocks doing?" Asks Sparatus, who has not yet had the chance to check on them since the news broke.

"Overall? Down 4%" Valern replies, "The volus think they will be able to stop the haemorrhaging by days end if no more leaks are announced."

"If being the keyword." Muses Sparatus, "Alright. But we need to address the situation, we still need to make an official comment over the Humans, either to acknowledge their existence or to deny it. I do not think we can deny their existence any longer, though."

"No," Irissa agrees, "We can not. I vote we release a statement confirming that Fleet Commander Quirinus is currently initiating contact with the species."

"I agree," Sparatus responds, "But we also must be ready with our answers. My people especially will want to know why we have sent the Primarchs Chosen on this mission, and with such a sizeable fleet."

"We can't claim it is a standard response to First Contact. We did not send such a powerful fleet for the Batarians, Volus or the Quarians on their respective first contacts." Valern notes.

"True, but none of them have warships made of relay metals, ring worlds, stealth war vessels or plasma weaponry." Sparatus says before pulling a hand down his face, "This is going to be a fun afternoon. If I get an assistant to bring a drink up do any of you want one brought up?"

**/.../**

**Earth**

Tevos looks herself over in a full-length mirror before blinking to herself, happy with her overall appearance. As it turns out, after Dinner, which was once more an extravagant affair with more types of food then Tevos had anticipated, the Humans had invited them to a 'cultural' event. From loose translations, Tevos understands the event will showcase different types of music from human culture, trick masters, and unique types of entertainment. After collecting the rest of her cohort, Tevos finds herself whisked away in some sort of sky car, only to start landing procedures around 20 minutes later; from the speed of the skycar Tevos must assume they are a fair distance from their accommodation. The city they are landing at Tevos notes to herself is far smaller than the city they flew over the day prior, nor does it have the spiralling skyscrapers, instead, this town appears old and is representative of an Asari city during the late industrial years. In the centre of this city and living on the top of a small rocky hill, there is a building that looks as old as the mountains, it is made from what looks like rudimentary materials and is surrounded by a wall which looks equally as old. It occurs to Tevos that this building must have been a fortress at some time that the humans for some reason never tore down. In fact, it would appear to Tevos like the Humans have illuminated the Fortress of a building, lighting it up nicely in the night sky, glorifying it.

The skycar comes to land in a quiet courtyard not too far away from the city centre, and outside the car Tevos can see a few Humans standing around, no doubt waiting for her cohorts arrival. Before dismounting from the car, Tevos notices a few of the human soldiers checking what must be concealed communication devices, before nodding to one another and then opening the doors to the skycar. The President is the first to leave after the soldiers, followed by Benezzia, and then everyone else dismounts in a disorganised manner. There are a few words exchanged between Benezzia, the President and the new humans before Tevos finds herself and her group led out of the courtyard and into the city's streets. The street itself is dead, no one being around, but this does not bother Tevos too much. It allows her to see the old buildings of this city in all their glory, and for her to catch a glimpse at what type of shops are available, and thankfully the Human shops don't appear to be too different from Asari shops. There are clothes shops, watch shops, jewellery shops, food shops and one or two others that Tevos is not too sure of, but one type of shop which does surprise her is a one which appears to sell skin ink, so far only Asari are known to decorate their skin with ink.

Turning off the street to move down a quiet side street Tevos comes to the conclusion they are making their way to the imposing Fortress at the top of the hill. As they get closer to the Fortress, they leave the side street and enter some wider streets that once more are lined with shops all the way down them. Unlike the prior streets, the new streets are different from the last because these streets are populated with humans, many of whom are now staring at herself and her team. Being allowed to walk a street populated with civilian humans on so close to first contact is also a good indicator to Tevos, it means that the Human leaders trust their people enough to not just attack her group. What she does not yet fully realise is the Augment soldiers with her are armed and enough of a deterrent for anyone to try something.

The group walk along a few more streets till they start walking up the hill towards the Fortress, and as they walk more and more among the local population, Tevos comes to notice a few things. Humans are really diverse, they have many different hair colours and styles, they come in many different sizes and shapes. Their skin is sometimes decorated with tattoos like her own, and sometimes their skin is of a completely different colour. Some of the humans walk alone with their dogs, in fact more than Tevos would have anticipated which tells her the animals are more relevant to the humans than expected, and others walk in large social groups. The conclusion to be made is simple, Humans are going to be a diverse and complex species to fully understand, meaning it will be a considerable amount of time before the Council will be able to fully understand the reasons why a human government acts how it does.

Getting near the top of the hill the Councillor can see some stands have been erected in front of the Fortress's entrance, with the stands being filled with maybe a thousand or so Humans. Tevos can't help but remark to Benezzia that she hopes they themselves are not what the humans have come to see. Tevos finds herself being taken behind the stands and to the Fortress, where they are then taken up onto its walls through what must be ancient corridors built into the Fortress and then on to the top of the gatehouse. From this position on top of the gatehouse, Tevos can look into what the stands in front of the Fortress have been erected around; It quickly comes clear the stands are built around an illuminated performance area.

As they take their position, a waiter offers everyone in the group a selection of drinks, and a voice can be heard broadcasting from a speaker to announce something to the audience, which is then quickly translated to Benezzia.

"It turns out," Benezzia then says to Tevos, "This is a cultural event from this part of the world, and has happened every year for more than a thousand years. There will be numerous different acts."

The first act caught the group off guard as some drummers within the Fortress itself started to beat some drums, only for some people in red coats carry a wide variety of musical instruments to enter the performing area seconds later from the gatehouse of the Fortress. After the act was complete, the Human audience did something unexpected, with nearly everyone of them slapping their hands together, creating a commotion of harsh slapping sounds. Tevos would come to see this after every act, and quickly realises it is how the humans show applause. It is an odd mechanism to show appreciation, but Tevos can see how it works, it's loud and audible. It would not work for the Asari though, the act of 'clapping' is a little too 'out there'.

Over the course of the evening, Tevos would come to see many different types of entertainment, some acts involved humans dancing, others performing different types of music. Still, most importantly, there was something which entertained everyone attending. One act which grabbed the Turians attention involved a race between two teams dragging ancient and heavy looking cannons over various obstacles, Tevos notes that the Turians also liked how the Humans started the race by firing a mini cannon. Something which grabbed the Salarians attention was a 'magic' show, she could hear the Salarians discussing long after the act how the entertainer had done what he did. How did the man cut the woman in half, and how did he do that thing with the balls and string? Tevos may never know, but she does know the act held her attention all the way through. For her own people, the Asari, in general, were most captivated by the fire dancing, it certainly added an extra flair to simple body movements.

As the show went on, it was explained to Tevos from Benezzia that the Humans consider this show to be a platform to show off culture, and while all the performers may arrive as strangers to one another, from many different parts of Human space, they will all leave as friends. It is a nice sentiment, Tevos thinks, already conceiving of a way she could use this event in the future to showcase off some Citadel culture to the Humans.

The event was brought to its conclusion with all the performers of the evening coming into the performing area to sing some sort of song, before some fireworks concluded the night with a final bang. Checking the time Tevos notes it has been 3 hours since the event started, meaning by now, she is ready for some sleep. Thankfully, the Humans must also think the same as they quickly bring a sky car in for them to return to their accommodation.

As Tevos sits in the sky car on the way back, she turns from observing the planet below her and to Benezzia, "I've been thinking," She says. "We just witnessed many different types of talent, from physical to musical, but we did not see a single demonstration of biotics." Usually, this is something species that poses biotic capabilities like to demonstrate.

"Yes," Benezzia blinks back, "I have also been thinking about this. I believe that this species probably do not harness biotic power. From my scans, their food contains next to no element zero, and no other scan I've made over the last day have detected any traces of element zero. I think this solar system may be parched of the element." It is not common for a solar system to completely lack element zero, but it is not unheard of.

"Then maybe we should ask tomorrow." Tevos returns, "After some sleep."

**Thanks all.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Happy new year all, and hope you had a good Christmas! So, the story moves forward a little bit now and the situation gets a whole lot more complex.**

**RR**

**IHateGenericCereal, Cheers for the comment, but yes, as I'm hoping you've noticed I've tried to give each species their own unique quirks as I would imagine if all aliens acted like us then they would be rather boring to read about.**

O**rionastro: I'm not sure humanity is going to discover something different, alteast not this early on. I have plans for them to be working on something, but they have been working on FTL in this story since we as a species ever wanted to visit the stars.**

**heartfanglives: We start to see some Batarian interference this chapter, also, yes, I want to go more into how this humanity would slot into the galaxy as a hole. Cheers**

**Jotun: I would follow your gut on that one...**

**ThePrimeCronos: Both of what you asked is coming, but one sooner than the other. For Sports, I was thinking something along the lines of Real Steel and I've already set up a Football (Soccer for you americans out there) scene earlier in the story.**

**Joe Fenton: Cheers, also no, that is my 'bon apple tea' moment, thanks for the corrections.**

**ralmon: Less world building this chapter to move things along, but good to know I eventually got the humans right. I plan on doing more like that in the near ish future. First a little obstacle to overcome though.**

After a short morning run for some exercise, Shepard went for breakfast, only to find since it is a picturesque morning with blue skies, the hotel staff are serving food outside and in the hotels garden. Shepard does not mind this change in scenery for breakfast because she, like most other humans, enjoys the sun on her skin. The sun is something Shepard knows she does not get enough of as her service takes her off-world a lot of the time, resulting in the requirement for extra vitamin D in her food, among a few other additional supplements.

After ordering some breakfast from the polite hotel staff, Shepard looks down the garden to find two Asari sitting cross-legged in some grass, facing towards the local star that is slowly rising in the sky.

"They seem to be at peace, don't they?" A voice calls and Shepard turns her head to view the President, "Mind if I join you?" It is not like Shepard could say no if she wanted to, so with a nod from the Soldier, the President pulls a chair out and joins Shepard at her table.

The hotels waiters, unsurprisingly, are very quick to ask the President for his choice in food, and when left alone the President once more turns to Shepard, "I'm right in thinking your a type 2, correct?"

The marine nods, knowing the President is referring to what generation of Augment she is, "One of the rare few left, yes." While there are many augments in service, very few are of the rare type 2, mostly due to how much action the type 2's have been subject to.

"And your brother, John, he is a type...4?"

Shepard once more nods, "Yes, Space force don't need half of the type 2 augments, and I don't need half of the type 4 augments. Space and ground warfare are different arts requiring different artists."

The President takes to sitting on his chair at a funny angle so he can rest his hands on the backrest of his chair while facing Shepard, "Yes, one must imagine so."

Shepard, realising that the President is in a curious mood, puts her eating utensils down and turns to face him fully, "So, what would you like to know?" She asks, most people, even those who are opposed to Augments are curious about them.

"You type 2's," The President starts with, "Apparently your skeleton is replaced with metal and..." Shepard starts to smirk; she has heard of a lot of stories regarding her own generation of augments, most of it belongs in sci-fi books.

"A lot of that is a myth," Shepard responds with a wave of her hand in a dismissing motion, "But I'm sure you already know that. What you might not know is the story of us having metal bones rose after a battle with some Micky's on the space elevator above Mars. It started after a comrade had a wound which exposed his bone, which funnily enough had been replaced with titanium due to an earlier war injury. The medics at the time quickly spread the story we had steel skeletons. We let it spread because during that war, we needed the whole concept of us Augments being terrifying terminator like machines." The idea to let the story spread was that of a crusty old Colonel who was quite adept in psychological warfare, but his plan failed; instead of just being scared of Augments, people would often go to extreme lengths to terminate them. Augment casualties went through the roof as people would call in all sorts of heavy fire on Augment locations, no matter the cost of doing so.

"I keep forgetting how old you type 2's are to have fought that war," The President muses, "But you mentioned 'a lot of that', key words being 'a lot of', which must mean some of it is at least true."

"Some of it. When fresh out of the augmentation process we all had bones reinforced with graphene, muscles four times as dense as a standard human and a reaction times far beyond the norm, on top of a lot of other nasty things to help us survive in chemical and biological battlefields."

"I see," Reflects the President before greeting an Asari and two Turians who have decided to join them for breakfast. After the greeting are over the President turns back to Shepard. "The augmentation period must have been hard to allow for such adaptations."

Shepard shakes her head, "No, I was drugged up to the eyeballs for most of it, and what little I do remember, is very blurred, to the point I'm not sure if it is a fragment of imagination or not."

"Was the process worth it?" Asks the President.

Shepard does not shake her head, but nor does she nod it, "Don't ask a question you really do not..." Shepard stops speaking mid-sentence and frowns heavily as she looks down the hotels garden, "What in the name?" She asks no one in particular before rapidly making a move to stand up.

Turning his head, the President looks towards what has the Soldier alarmed, only to find the two Asari are consumed by what could possibly be described as a blue fire of some kind. While the President might describe the flames surrounding the Asari as fire, he knows from his observations that the 'flames' are not fire, they are something else entirely. The colour of the 'flames' is that of a dark blue, and the 'flames' behaviour does not conform with that of a natural fire. Instead of acting like a normal fire, the flames look like they are being controlled and manipulated to swirl around the Asari.

The lone Asari at the table grabs for Shepard's arm while making a calming gesture, and when Shepard turns to look back at the two on 'fire', she finds the 'fire' is no more, and the Asari are moving from their seated position.

**/.../**

After helping Benezzia onto her feet the two Matriarchs turn to walk up the grass, "The solider looks... uneasy." Benezzia says.

Tevos blinks out of habit, even though she knows Benezia will not see her eyelid movement, "She looks tense. If she could burn holes with her eyes, I believe we would be in trouble right now."

"Is that because she is unsure of our biotics and its nature, or because we used biotics in such a manner?" Ponders Benezzia, "In hindsight, they could see the use of biotics as aggression."

Tevos looks past the human warrior and to the President who is sat at the table while starring at themselves, "Well, the President looks puzzled. I'm going to go down the route of the Humans not knowing about biotics."

Getting to the table with the President Tevos and Benezzia are greeted by the man, and after an expression of 'good morning,' spoken in Standard Galactic by the Human leader, Benezzia and the President enter a conversation. As Benezzia speaks with the President Tevos turns to the others on the table, "Well?" She asks them.

It is a Turian who replies to Tevos, and from his face paintings, Tevos knows the man has served in the Turian navy, and is from a tribe on Palavern, "They are not familiar with it. The Soldier was on her feet the moment it noticed, and the President was looking on confused."

Tevos does not like the Soldiers reaction, "Did the Soldier look like it was going to be hostile?"

"Yeah, but if that was the Primarch sat there, and a Cabal saw something like that from an unknown alien species, you could bet the Cabal would react the same."

Tevos blinks, she knows that what she did was very risky, if the Humans reacted even slightly more hostile, then things would have turned south very quickly, but the Asari had faith. The Humans so far have gone to extreme lengths to make good relations, so she did not expect them to react with much hostility on impulse. "Yes, very true."

It is not long till Benezzia finishes speaking with the President and turns to Tevos, "Well, the President does not know about biotics, and neither does the Soldier. Both are very inquisitive."

"What type of questions are they asking?"

"They want to know why I was on fire." Benezzia half chuckles, "They honestly have no idea about it, most of their questions are child-like."

"So, they can build ring worlds, plasma weaponry, and stealth technology hundreds of years more advanced than anything we dreamed of, yet they are clueless about biotics." Tevos muses.

"Don't forget about fast elevators." The third Asari on the table chips in, resulting in Tevos rolling her eyes.

Benezzia blinks after a small chuckle, "Yes, so it would seem."

"So, that makes me wonder if they have harnessed element zero yet. These people could be stuck to this solar system."

"I'm not sure," Benezzia replies honestly, "But what is curious is the fact that the humans know the word 'biotics'. They have just never known what the Prothean word actually meant and have never been able to translate."

"Well," Tevos starts, "I am glad you have been able to provide a service. Have they asked for a demonstration at all?"

"No," Benezzia quickly replies, "So far, they only think we can surround our bodies with 'fire'. So, I believe a demonstration would be best left to a diplomatic party as this whole event has been themselves showing off. We do not want to steal their show, so to speak."

"Very true," Tevos concedes before changing the topic, "So, what is the next stop on their show."

The other Matriarch blinks before going back to chat with the President for a while, and once a fair bit of conversation has been exchanged, Benezzia comes back to Tevos. "We are to take an 'Elon' to the opposite side of the world, where we are then going to see some of the aquatic wildlife this planet has to offer, we will be on a boat for this bit."

Despite coming from a world with a surface that is 79% ocean, Tevos is not the most avid ocean goer, mostly because she is one of the rare few that suffers from sea-sickness. "Don't suppose you packed any sea-sickness tablet?" Tevos asks to which Benezzia simply raises a brow, asking if Tevos really asked that. "Thought not. Hopefully, the sea's are calm." Hopefully...

**/.../**

Two hours later

After finishing breakfast Tevos and her cohorts are guided into a sky car which takes them to an unusual looking building. Upon entering the building, the group go down a few flights of stairs till they come across a large open room. At either side of the room is a large hole which a tube comes out of.

"This system is called the Elonvator," Benezzia translates, "It will take us under this planet's crust, and deliver us to the opposite side of the world."

Tevos turns her head when a Salarian speaks, "How are they doing that? Extreme pressure makes it infeasible." Even Tevos knows that the pressure below the planet's crust would crush 99% of metal structures. Either the Humans are lying, or they have some serious material science that citadel wants into - not that the ringworld above their planet doesn't already have Tevos salivating at the idea of getting her hands on their material science.

I'm just translating," Benezzia replies, "And lack the terminology to get the scientific explanations for you."

When the next 'Elon car' arrives the group strap themselves in and within an impressively short amount of time they are arriving at their stop. Why they did not use a sky car Tevos is uncertain, but if she had to bet, she would say they were showing off the 'Elonvator'. Building such a structure below their planet's crust could not have been an easy feat - harder yet would be maintaining the structural integrity. What no one in the away team knows yet, is that it is this structure which pushed humanity into discovering the metal used for creating the relays.

At their stop, the away team are quickly whisked away and onto a skycar which takes them a short distance to a harbour. Getting onto a relatively small boat, about 50 meters long, the away team find themselves sat down in front of a screen, where the safari man from the day prior begins to explain a few different animals. Apparently, there will be an opportunity to swim with a few of the aquatic beings, and with a few other creatures, they dare not put a toe into the water.

The boat ride out from the harbour was slow, as are all boats, but eventually, the boat arrives at its first stop, where the Humans point out to a few sea creatures which are occasionally seen jumping out of the ocean. It is explained to the group that these are dolphins, which are one of the most intelligent sea creatures known after the blue whale and killer whale. The group of dolphins were quickly enticed to come to the boat when some human workers threw some fish overboard, allowing all onboard a closer look at the creatures. Surprisingly, they looked a lot like some sea predators from Thessia.

Moving on from the dolphins the group find themselves floating above some coral reefs, where they are offered to go snorkelling, and as the waters are calm Tevos finds only the Turians opt to stay on board the boat. After an hour or so swimming among countless different types of sea creatures to be found in the corals, Tevos returns to the boat to find that there is a certain tense atmosphere on the boat. Tevos can not help but think that in her time off the boat, something has gone ghastly wrong.

Looking around, Tevos notices that Benezia is sat waiting for her, the Matriarch must have left the water some time ago as she looks dry. "Is all in order?" Tevos finds herself asking with some concern.

Benezia's facial reaction instantly causes a frown of concern to cross Tevos's face. "What has happened?"

Benezia does not initially give a verbal response as she pulls up an image on her omni-tool. "Have a look." She tells Tevos.

The Asari councillor takes the omni-tool as she sits down next to Benezia, she no longer cares about the fact that she is dripping wet. Looking at the picture on the omni-tool Tevos quickly realises what has gone wrong, on the omni-tool there is a picture of 65 Batarian vessels in tight formation. "Are they in Human space?"

Thankfully Tevos sees a slight clench in Benezia's fists telling her that no, the vessels are not in human territory, "No, but interestingly, the Humans are the ones that alerted us to this. The fleet is sat at the opposite side of the Relay needed to enter this system."

The Councilor breathes out a deep breath through her nose before closing the image of the fleet, "How have the humans reacted?"

Benezia once more clenches her fists, "I do not believe they are reacting well. The President has mentioned he will be leaving shortly to make 'Preparations'. I can only assume he means to make ready for a potential conflict."

Tevos raises a hand to her forehead, trust the bane of the Galaxy to ruin this First Contact, "Please tell me you told them they will not dare to try anything against a Turian fleet."

"The Humans have no reason to believe that." Benezia tells Tevos, "All they see is 30 Turian war vessels in their system, and 65 more which looks like they are about to join us. If this was an Asari system or even a Turian system, battle preparations would be made."

"I can't even think about how we can move them on," Tevos sighs, "The space that Relay connects to is Batarian owned. The Council can not force them out without serious concessions. And more concerningly, what happens when the Council fleet arrives? The Humans see two fleets just waiting to enter their system? Turians would see that as a pre-emptive strike waiting to happen, as would the Matriarchs. I can already hear the Human war calls."

Seeing Corvinus approach her position Tevos looks to the Turian Captain, knowing Benezia will most likely have already consulted with him, "What are your thoughts?"

The Turian is straight out with his answer, "We need to leave this system in order to let things calm and try to move the Batarians on. If these people think anything like my own, then we are in increasingly dangerous waters."

**/.../**

2 hours later

The President takes a seat around a large circular table with his most senior military advisers, as he sits he says, "So, our friends have confirmed they are Batarians. Give me options."

One of the military advisors pushes a strategic military map to the President, displaying the location of assets in the region of interest, "We have 51 Ultron platforms on the far side of the Relay; they have not been detected yet."

"You're talking about a pre-emptive strike. "

"No." The man replies bluntly, "Because I would consider a first move is sending a Stealth vessel into our space." Shortly before the Batarian fleet was detected a Stealth Vessel was discovered entering Human space by the Ultron Platforms at the far side of the relay. This stealth vessel has many of the military advisors concerned as many see it as a reccy for an invasion.

"What are we doing about the Stealth vessel?"

A man representing the Martian navy speaks up, "We have one of our own stealth vessels shadowing it. We have some Micky's ready to force entry on a moments notice." Micky's are slang Martian Marines.

"Do we know if the vessel belongs to the Batarians?"

The man gives an uneasy look, "We are not 100%, but it arrives just before them, which tells me its a Batarian reccy vessel, then to further the point we have discovered one shadowing the Batarian fleet."

The President sighs, "What is the one in our system doing at the moment?"

"Performing some data gathering on Jupiter."

"No attempts to establish comms?" The President asks.

The Martian shakes his head, "No. It's silent in the EM Spectrum and its running deathly cold. Whoever is in command of that vessel doesn't want to be detected. If you were to invade a system, you can be sure I would advise you to do something similar to this vessel here."

The room is quiet until the President says, "I'm thinking board it if we can't establish comms."

"Mr President," An older advisor in the room speaks, "Can I advise against that. We board it now and we let them know we can detect their stealth vessels. If we let them think they are still able to operate undetected, we can gain more intel, we can find out where they are interested in and bolster our defences there."

"I disagree," Another speaks up, "Every second its out there, its finding things to attack. If we take it out now, those Batarians come in blind, giving our people precious time to work. If we board it, we take the soft approach, and can return their people once we know they are of no threat. Also, I must advise against establishing comms, it would just give it time to plan an attack, run, or send what data it has gathered back to whoever owns the vessel."

The President taps the table, torn over what to do. Eventually, he asks, "What else can we do?" The room is quiet, so the President breaths in, nods and then says, "Get me the detailed plans to board it." Upon this command, numerous assistants in the room set to work. "But! Before we do anything, how can we bolster the defence of this system?"

A woman speaks up, "We have people ready to drag broken up pieces of what was once Charon in front of the relay and detonate them into a million bits. Any vessels that come out on our side would be forced into emergency slow manoeuvres, giving our Stealth vessels easy pickings. We can also mine it with either more Ultron platforms or Tritium mines."

The President swallows a little; a Tritium mine would be a hell of a surprise to whoever was unfortunate enough to run into one. "Alright, do it. Are we redeploying the fleets at all?"

"Yes." An admiral at the table says, "We are sending our fleet to the outer rim, for now, we are going to have to hope Ultron can handle the fleet above Earth. May I also suggest we advise the Turian fleet of our plan to mine the relay, it may cause them concern to see activity around it."

"We will." The President guarantees, "Once the Asari translator is back on board her vessel to translate for us."

1 hour later

The President cracks his neck before nodding to an assistant who hits a red button on a black box, which connects him to the fleet in Orbit where Benezia is waiting. "Matriarch Benezia," The President greets.

"Mr President," Benezia returns, "I have Fleet Commander Quirinus waiting for you."

"Fleet Commander Quirinus, we must advise you to leave our system." The President tells the Turian, "We will be mining the device you used to enter imminently." It takes a while to translate this message as 'mining' and 'imminently' do not register with Benezia, so other words need to be found that can convey the same meaning.

"As you desire," Fleet Commander Quirinus returns, "Can we maintain communications through this device?" Some military advisors find it odd that the Turian is not wanting to stay in system.

The President nods once the message is converted enough for him to understand. "Yes."

"Then we will speak again when the diplomatic part arrives. Is there anything else?"

"Yes. As you seem to know them, please inform the Batarians not to enter our system, we will come to them if needed."

"Understood. Fleet Commander Quirinus out."

When the Turian ends the call the President turns to his military advisors, "If the Stealth Vessel does not leave with the fleet, we will give it a few hours for the Turians to tell the Batarians our message, and then if it still makes no effort to turn tail, we will board it."

**6 Hours later**

After no sign of the Stealth Vessel turning around the President give the nod which allows the Martian crew to board the unidentified vessel. The initial attack was a swift strike at the engines of the ship to immobilise it, followed by a strafing run to eliminate its close defence platforms. With these destroyed the Micky's were green-lighted to force entry.

After a few minutes of watching a video feed from a marines helmet-mounted camera the President pulls a hand down his face, realising he has boarded a ship filled with Salarians, not Batarians. "Ship secure," A voice of one marine calls, "We have 13 captives."

Standing from his chair the President breathes out as he removes a tie, "I believe," He starts, "I may have just kicked a hornet's nest."

**Cheers for reading! Next chapter we go back to The Primarchs Chosen.**


	11. Chapter 11

**RR**

**Azreal the deplorable: He just attacked a ship that was Salarian. He fears the repercussions of that considering he was just talking with their friends, he is also sat thinking, is this Council as peaceful as they claim to be if they have a stealth ship in his back yard. **

**Heartfanglives: In some ways, Humanity in this fic need the rest of the galaxy, but they aren't going to be pushed over. We will see why that is later.**

**Kira-117: The Hornets nest, is kicking a species whose ally is capable of just sending a QRF fleet into your space without thought. **

**Bruto22: They may just agree. **

**DeitarionSSokolow: Yeah, thinking back when I wrote that chapter it was in a rush to get it done, so I could get it pushed out when I had internet. I will be going back to it. **

**Rydan Fall: I'm not going to go down the route of mixing genes from different species, simply because I dislike those mixed species stories. They are going to be advanced enough to know all about their own genetics though and how to manipulate them.**

**IhateGenericCereal: The Batarians main purpose in this story is to allow Humanity to question the Citadel Question. **

** Ralmon: Yes, hands up, last chapter was a muck up that I'll be updating shortly as I have internet back. Cheers for giving me a kick. **

**HNV Cardeus - Primarch's Chosen's personal dreadnought**

The Primarchs Chosen is seated in a chair as he looks intensely at an image projected onto a wall in his quarters. In his hands, he holds an electronic notepad that is displaying the same image projected onto the wall, the only difference between the two images is that some hand-drawn notes adorn the version on his notepad. Since learning of the Human tendencies towards Stealth Vessels, Caredeus has been studying Salarian strategies and tactics, knowing that the amphibious allies enjoy partaking in Stealth Warfare - despite their claims to the contrary. He knows he will need to employ tactics he is not the most rehearsed in, and so, he has been taking any and all opportunities to study stealth warfare.

To his side sits a Salarian Captain, who for the last few hours has explained using a few recordings from battles during the Krogan Rebellions and Rachni wars why Salarian Stealth Vessels acted as they had. Now, after hours of lessons, it is up to Caredus to tell the Salarian Captain on a new recording he has not previously seen or studied as to what the Stealth Vessels will do before they do it.

"They won't engage." Caredus says after a few moments to think some more, "Cluster 1 will move to the far side of the local moon, while Cluster 2 will split into two sub-clusters. The first sub-cluster will break formation and shadow at a distance of 5 million miles, and the second will move to the Relay to block comms."

"Close, and in a similar situation today, we would have followed this logic." The Salarian Captain replies, "But at the time of this conflict only one vessel was required to block Krogan communication channels, they lacked any true sophistication back then," He sniffs, "So only one vessel was sent to the Relay. The other 4 ships in the sub-cluster cluster joined the others behind the moon."

The Turian flares his mandibles ever so slightly upwards, he is glad to know that he is thinking along the correct lines of thought. If he can predict and understand how the Salarians would use Stealth Vessels, then maybe he can predict how the new aliens will use them. Hearing the door to his private chambers chime the Turian stands from his chair and opens the door to see the ships 2nd in Command waiting for him in a rigid at attention posture. After exchanging pleasantries, Fannus asks, "Development, I assume?" The man would not be here otherwise.

"A report has been sent from one of our forward reconnaissance vessels." The Turian 2IC says before he breaks from his rigid posture to hand the Primarchs Chosen a datapad.

Faunus reads the reports blurb before telling the man, "Change formation to A6 and have Fleet Commander Quirinus join me when his fleet arrives."

"As you command," The second Turian replies before saluting the Primarchs Chosen and turning to do as asked.

Closing his door behind him after dismissing the 2IC, Faunus returns to the chair he was sitting in earlier. "So," He says to the Salarian Captain, "Your scouts have indicated the QRF fleets return. They are without battle damage." The Salarian blinks his large eyes twice to lubricate them as he waits patiently, knowing that something else is coming, the Turian would not have changed feet formation on this news alone. "They also report that 65 Batarian vessels are sat in front of the Human Relay."

"We suspected." The Salarian Captain replies when he believes the Turian is finished, knowing that despite not being in the same navy, the Primarchs Chosen is of a considerably higher rank of an allies navy and he needs to respect that. "Should they play the game right, the Batarians will be able to get considerable concessions from the Council."

"Yes." Muses Faunus, "We also predicted something like this would happen. The Primarch has allowed me to act accordingly - but he has made clear we are not to give anything for their obedience. This mission is a Council Operation with the Galaxies security in question."

The Salarian slightly widens his eyes before replying, "We would not have expected anything different. But it is my duty to inform you that while the Salarian Government can not condone any hostilities at such a time, I can inform you that many in power would voice support."

Faunus squints his eyes a little at the Salarian before reaching for his drink and taking a sip of water. Putting the glass down a short time later he looks back to the wall in front of him and says, "So, we have one and a half clusters behind the moon and one vessel at the Relay."

/.../

**6 hours later**

Faunus returns the salute from Fleet Commander Quirinus before replying to the man, "So, you return unscathed." The statement is a question in its own, asking for the untold story.

"We do," Quirinus responds as he falls into step with the Primarchs Chosen, "The Humans advised us to leave once they noticed the Batarian fleet. They are preparing their system for an invasion."

"I see," Thinks Faunus, "So they must have eyes somewhere close by."

"They do," Quirinus tells the Primarchs Chosen, "But we have not been able to detect them. Human stealth technology has proven to be beyond what our sensors are capable of."

Quirinus moves his mandibles in an agreeing motion, "We have Salarian reccy vessels working on that. One is in their system as we speak; the other is shadowing the Batarian fleet." It is silently worrying Faunus a little that he is learning of the Human eyes from Quirinus, and not the Salarians shadowing the Batarian fleet.

"I do not imagine that it is a good idea to have a reccy vessel in Human space," Quirinus informs as he walks into a briefing room that has multiple monitors decorating the walls. The room's purpose is to gather intelligence from people who have just returned from off-ship missions, meaning it has all the equipment and aids required for someone to inform of what they had done, and seen. "I think they are trying to outswim a territorial Hanar."

Seeing a good bottle of smoked Turian spirits on the table waiting for them, Faunus picks up the bottle and says, "And why would that be?" After speaking, he breaks the wax seal of the bottle and sniffs the contents - A Turian gentleman would not be caught drinking from a bottle that he has not personally sniffed the contents of. After giving Quirinus a sniff, Faunus grabs two glasses from a nearby presentation case.

Fleet Commander Quirinus waits for the Primarchs Chosen to pour two glasses before handing him a datapad. "When we arrived in system, we had no idea the 3rd planet was a heavily built-up garden world, or any of the other inner planets; they somehow managed to hide that from our optical sensors. If that is not good stealth technology, then I do not know what is. Further to this, it is the ground crews assessment that this is their place of origin. If this was Palavern..."

"Hmm," Faunus ponders aloud as he hands Quirinus one of the glasses. A navy defending their homeworld is a navy with a dedicated crew, and a navy with everything to lose.

Quirinus takes the glass from the Primarch's Chosen before clinking the glass with Faunus's own. With the glasses clinked, Quirinus being the lowest-ranked member in the room states, "To the Primarch and the Spirits that guide us." Before taking a sip of the beverage, Quirinus turns to the bow of the ship, as is Turian tradition when making a toast onboard a vessel.

With a toast to the Primarch done, Faunus can make a toast to whatever he desires, "To the Turians of Quick Reaction Fleet 35, and their unwavering service in the face of the unknown."

With the toasts completed Faunus holds the datapad Quirinis give him up so he can read it. After a while, he looks up from the datapad and says, "I see. This news, this stealth technology they have, unfortunately, does not overly startle me."

"It does not?" Asks Quirinus with some surprise.

"No." Faunus replies before approaching a TV screen on the wall and logging in to it. When logged into the screen, he brings up some documents for Quirinus to read. As Quirinus reads the document, Faunus says, "Higher Command has been busy going over your scans of the Human ships you have encountered. They are constructed from Relay Metal." Faunus lets this settle in for a second before expanding on his statement, "The Primarch fears they have a huge Prothean cache they are mining for technology."

"Faex." Quirinus immediately responds, showing a slight lapse in professionalism, "This all makes sense. The Humans we have come across are adept at the Prothean language, have ring worlds, Quantum communication technology small enough to fit in a box, advanced stealth and weapon technology, and now Relay metal. It will explain why you have come with such a powerful containment fleet."

"Yes," Faunus says aloud. "Now you understand the enormity of this situation; I need you to tell me anything which can give us the edge, should force be needed."

"As you command," Quirinus replies with a small flare of his mandibles before taking another sip of the Turian spirit - the drink is an expensive brand only the most elite in society can afford, so it is enjoyed in small sips. "But let me recap. We have sent a reccy vessel to their home system, there is a Batarian fleet just outside their Relay and ready to knock, and now we are about to arrive with the largest containment fleet seen in centries."

"Hmm." Faunus hums in agreement. "Quite an invasion fleet, would you not think."

"Indeed." Quirinus replies, "And so think the Humans. As we were leaving their system, we witnessed a large build-up of asteroids in front of the Relay exit point - dragged there by human vessels. They also informed us that they had mined the Relay."

Faunus moves to another monitor before grabbing a pen-like device and begins to draw on the screen. First, he draws a quick military symbol for a Relay, and then he illustrates a small circle around it. "How far would you estimate them to have mined?"

"I could only guess, but we detected some ships up to 50km away from the Relay. It is possible that they have gone further, but most activities we could detect was within 50km."

Faunus stops drawing and turns to look at Quirinus, "There must be more to this." A traditional minefield around a relay expands far past 50km, this is due to the dispersal constant of the relays, meaning ships can exit a relay up to 100km from it, this constant is something which the ships have little control over. The Turian Hierarchy dictates that a minefield around a relay should be no less than 150km to be effective.

"I don't think so," Quirinus replies to Faunus, "But this has had me wondering too. It was the CV Avian that opened the Relay, not the Humans, so I do not believe they had previously discovered the Relays."

"Now that is an interesting hypothesis." Faunus agrees as he stands back from the display he was previously drawing on, a hand clasped to his chin "So, do they have another means of FTL do you think?"

Quirinus clucks his tongue in thought before flaring his mandibles downwards slightly, "We saw nothing of the kind, but that doesn't tell me much. What I do know is their system is as barren as an Elcors Deployment Record when it comes to Element Zero, with not a single trace found on their homeworld by the away team." Elcor very rarely deploys their military; thus, it is almost unheard of for an Elcor to have a deployment record.

"Doesn't mean they don't have technology which hid it from you like the fact their homeworld was not a barren rock." Faunus points out, "But if not, then it means they either have a means of unknown FTL, or, they are stuck in this one system, and we just unlocked the door."

"If I were a betting man, I would say those options would be good wages," Quirinus agrees, "But, what has me wondering is if they have a Prothean cache that has gifted them all it has, surely they would have found the Relay."

"Maybe they did not want to find the Relay." Faunus thinks aloud, "Or they were scared of opening it like the Citadel is today."

"No." Quirinus says dismissing the idea, "The ground team have good impressions from the Humans, and they did not give me an isolationist impression, they put in the effort to get to know us even though we can barely communicate as is. If they knew that Relay was there, I think they would have..." The Fleet Commander is cut short as a chime rings on the Primarch's Chosen omni-tool.

The Primarch's Chosen looks down to his omni-tool and sees that it is an important call, meaning he probably has to answer it. "I should take this." He says. Answering the call he says, "Go ahead, Fleet Orchestrator."

The Fleet Orchestrator wastes little time to reply, "We are 1 light-year from the Batarian fleet."

"Halt fleet," Faunus tells the man at the opposite side of his omni-tool. "And wait for me to arrive in the Command Centre."

/.../

**Asari Expeditionary Vessel Destiny Ascension**

Tevos looks around a room filled with workstations and experts of all manners before blinking and telling her guide, "We did well to get this organised so quickly." On many of the monitors in the room, there are dozens of pictures the ground team have taken, some are being studied, others are displayed but yet to be analysed. On other work stations, Asari are working over two books the Humans provided, detailing their language, but progress is slow. It is one thing to translate a word, but something else entirely to put those words into structured sentences.

Her guide blinks in return while informing, "There is always a first contact team on 24 hours notice to move. When the call came through, it was simply a matter of picking them up from the Citadel. The hard part was getting the Prothean experts."

"Surely the University could provide on the Citadel," Tevos replies with a frown.

"Yes." The guide answers, "However, the University is a privately owned institution. They demanded an upfront payment before they would lease the experts we needed."

This statement from her guide causes an eye roll in the Councillor, "Truthfully, it shouldn't surprise me." Tevos tells the guide, knowing that the University is a Volus owned institution. "But we have the experts?"

"Yes. We managed to receive four people from the University before we stepped into the abyss."

"All fluent in Prothean?"

The guide looks a little uncertain as she replies, "As fluent as we were going to get with the time we had."

This comment does not give Tevos a warm fuzzy feeling, but she understands the constraints that the team who organised this expedition will have had to work with. "Then we best hope they are fluent enough to converse with the Humans fully."

Hearing someone approach from behind Tevos turns to find an aged Matriarch, Tevos knows the face, but can not for her life remember the Asari's name. "Councillor," The Matriarch speaks when she is a few feet away, "I've got something which needs your urgent attention."

"You have?" Tevos replies with a raised brow.

"Yes." The Asari responds, "Have a look at this." The Matriarch powers up her omni-tool and pulls up a grainy image. "Have a close look at the bottom right."

Tevos squints at the grainy image before feeling her stomach drop a little, "That is a human, isn't it?" Tevos could be wrong, but it looked like the Human was on a Batarian world. "Who sent you get this?"

"Yes, it is a Human. Now, would I not be wrong in thinking that this should be an urgent Council matter." Tevos notices the fact the Matriarch only partially answers her question, but she does not push, the missing information is not likely to provide a likeable answer.

Tevos blinks her eyes, she knows if the Salarians have found out about this image, then they will have the STG launch a raid to capture the Human in order to study it, and the Turians would send the Blackwatch to bring it back for interrogation. Further, Tevos knows that the Human would likely be sold, and incredibly quickly into what would likely be the Batarian hegemony where they would become virtually untouchable. "Yes." Tevos concedes, "Come with me." Tevos guides the Matriarch to a private room where a communications Terminal that is used for Council transmissions can be found. Signing into the terminal Tevos logs into a top-secret program before setting some options which bring up Council assets in Batarian space. Looking through the assets, Tevos sees something which will be of use to her. "Tela Vasair," She says aloud, "She is a Spectre, loyal to the Asari, and her last logged position puts her on a path to a nearby world."

"A perfect candidate to bring the human to ourselves then." The Matriarch comments.

Tevos silently blinks as she taps a message into another terminal to send the Spectre a message through Asari Comm links, that way the message will be untraceable, and she will not need to inform the other species. When the message has almost been sent to Vasir, Tevos looks up as she notices the internal lighting of the ship has changed from a harsh white light to a soft yellow, indicating a change of threat level. After quickly finishing the message and sending it on its way, Tevos makes her way to the bridge of the ship, where she finds the Captain speaking to an ops officer. As the conversation seems to be important, Tevos waits for the conversation to come to an end before speaking with the Captain, "What is the current situation?" She asks.

The Captain leads Tevos to a work station that is manned by a Target Acquisitions officer. "This dot here, it's a Batarian vessel." The Captain informs, "It's just arrived."

Tevos leans in closer to the screen to peer at the dot so she could read the information displayed next to it, "A lone frigate?" She asks.

The Matriarch in control of Asari's most powerful war vessel blinks before pressing a few buttons, "We also just received this." After pressing another button, a video begins to play of a Batarian Admiral. Tevos listens to the Batarian and waits for him to finish before speaking, "They want to join our containment efforts?"

"So it would seem," The Captain affirms, "The Primarch's Chosen..."

"Is against the proposal." Tevos interrupts, "He made his name hunting Batarians so working with them..." Tevos is well aware of Faunus Cardeus and his so-called remarkable victories against Batarian Pirates. Frankly, in Tevos's mind, the man has committed numerous war crimes to achieve what he has. Yes, the man is effective at his job, maybe even the best, the Turians certainly think so, but the standard you walk past is the standard you accept, and in this case, that standard is war crimes.

The ships' Captain clenches her fingers slightly, "Actually no, this was his response a few moments ago."

The Matriarch plays an audio message for the Councillor, in which the Primarchs Chosen unexpectedly accepts the Batarian aid. "What is his train of thought here?" Tevos asks aloud "The Batarians will have an ulterior motive. They almost always do."

"That is what I was just discussing," The Captain informs, "But he actually has sound logic in this situation."

"He does?" Asks Tevos, obviously wanting to know more about the situation.

"Yes." The ship's Captain brings up a zoomed-out image of the local space surrounding the Destiny Ascension, up to 2 light-years out. At this scale, Tevos notes that the Containment fleet is holding position one light year away from the Relay. "We know the Humans have eyes on into space immediately surrounding that Relay, and we know they are scared of invasion. We need the Batarians to move light years away so that the Humans can start to feel ignorantly safe."

"So by accepting the aid, we tell the Batarians to come to join us where we are right now."

"Yes." The Captain affirms, "But there is more to it. The Batarians are going to use any opportunity to try and get concessions from us; we are still in their space after all. If we denied their aid, then they could easily have sold to the press that we are the aggressors, and they could sell it well."

Tevos blinks, knowing just how well the Batarians can sell a good sob story and use that story to get concessions out of the Council. "You are preaching to the priestess about Batarian political tactics. What I would like to know is what are our plans when they show up."

"So, let us assume the PC is successful in getting the Batarians to join our containment fleet. In this situation, the current plan, which I suspect will change as Faunus war games it, is to send Quirinus's fleet back to the Relay, with the inclusion of ourselves, and 2 Batarian ships. That way, the Humans only see a fleet they know with a few extra's, then we have all the experts on board this vessel to help with First Contact, and the Batarians will feel included."

"Included enough to demand resources from the Council for military aid." Tevos muses as she crosses her arms over her chest. "I can not see this working well."

"Nor would I expect the PC to think it will, no plan survives contact. Right now, he just needs the Batarians moved from the Relay, without us using hostilities, what happens after that, well, its Faunus Caredeus we are talking about, if he can't figure out how to dispose of some Batarians, then who in civilised space can."

"That is what I worry about," Tevos replies, "He is a man who knows how to play Batarians, and he has an incredible fleet under him right now. I think he is up to something."

The Captain seems to agree from her body language, "On the way to this space, we crossed a single Batarian ship, the PC took a tough line with it, which the Batarians have already wailed foul about. Now, here they come looking for even more of our fowls, but he has disarmed it by accepting their offer. My bet is the Batarians were once more looking at us to deny them so they could once more go to the press with our injustices."

Tevos sighs as she looks towards an observation window, "I just pray both the Batarians and PC remember why they are here, and who realistically is the real threat."

/.../

**Cheers**


	12. Chapter 12

**1 Week later**

Faunus taps the glass desk in front of him with his talons as he rewatches a video for what could possibly be the hundredth time this week. As it turns out, inviting the Batarians to join the containment effort had unexpectedly paid off, when they joined the containment fleet the Batarians freely offered some recordings they had made on their way to the human Relay. These recordings that Faunus is watching now, without question shows some human stealth tech exiting the Relay. The Human devices are 100 meters long by 30 wide and 30 deep; they appear to be constructed from two Y shaped hulls that have been placed on top of one another, with the bases of the Y facing opposite directions. The Batarians only managed to record them for a few seconds before the optical sensors lost them; the ships are black in colour with no windows, meaning that it is very hard to track them. Still, it is enough for Faunus to know that the Humans are no longer contained to their system, and are actively sending assets into Batarian space. What also concerns Faunus is the fact that these constructs are previously unseen, they look nothing like the Stealth Vessels Quirinus has seen, and he can not judge their purpose. They are too small to be full-blown war-vessels by Citadel standards but too large to be a satellite.

Faunus wonders if they are scout vessels, but he doubts it, the vessels are too small and too cramped to offer any real quality of life onboard, especially for a scout vessel which could be expected to spend months, maybe even years in space and away from replenishing life-giving supplies. No, scout vessels are typically a bit larger, allowing for large storage of supplies, comfort luxuries and entertainment devices on board. His current theory is that they are unmanned drones, but what type of drones they are he is unsure, but if he had to bet, he would put them down as being assault drones - which worries him as he can't find them.

In addition to the concern regarding the unknown Stealth Vessels, Faunnus has also come to the conclusion that something has happened to the vessel they sent forward and into Human space. The Salarian Captain on board was given strict instructions to return from Human space 96 hours after entering their system. It has now been five full days, one day longer than permitted, and Salarians are not known for being late, to the contrary, in Salarian culture being late is viewed as a social taboo. It would be a lie to say Faunnus is not worried for the Salarians; he only hopes their return has been delayed by the minefield, and not anything else.

Pushing the concern for the stealth vessel aside Faunnus begins another playthrough of the Batarian video only for a push notification to make its way onto his screen a few seconds later. The notification is from a Salarian Recconisance Vessel, but not the one he is worried for, no, this comes from the one in orbit of the Human Relay in Batarian space. Wasting no time Faunnus clicks on the notifications icon and loads the message.

The first thing Faunnus sees is a high-resolution picture of what looks like a perfectly spherical ball; its colour is chalk white and size estimates put the ball at 2 meters in radius. Reading the message sent with the picture Faunnus raises a hand to his chin; three of these devices have just dropped out of the Relay, and the spheres have since started to spin at a revolution rate of 1250 revolutions per minute. Each of the orbs has its own direction of spin is in the x,y and z planes.

It does not take Faunnus long to come to the realisation that these devices are sensors of some sort, but what they are sensing the Primarch's Chosen is not sure of. He has seen and heard of EM spectral scanners, radiation sensors, and Eezo sensors to name a few, but these do not meet the requirements to be any of those. EM Spectral scanners are large devices, and typically you need a lot of them to have a high resolution of the sky you are scanning, and radiation sensors are far smaller than whatever these are. This leaves Eezo sensors, but to detect eezo you need eezo to do so, then further to this, eezo sensors do not need to spin.

With yet another mystery added to the fold, Faunnus goes back to planning.

**3 Hours later, AEV Destiny Ascension. **

Tevos looks up from an email she is typing to Tela Vasair and to the door of her office onboard the Destiny Ascension as an aid walks in. The past week has proven to be an interesting one for the Councillor as the Batarian Hegemony has freely offered the Human Slave to the Council, which is out of character for the Batarian government. Tevos suspects that this, along with the Batarians providing aid to the Containment Fleet, that the Batarians will shortly be making a power move of some kind and expect the Council to turn a blind eye. It would not be the first time that this has happened, so as a precaution Tevos has quietly informed new and poorly defended Asari colonies to be on guard; admittedly there are more than a few ripe for the picking, so to speak.

With the aid now stood in front of her desk Tevos patiently waits for her to speak, and she does not have to wait for long, "The Relay is powering up," The aid says calmly. Tevos stands from her desk in one smooth motion, if the Relay is powering up then the Humans must be sending something through, so maybe they are ready to speak. After walking the short distance to the Ascensions bridge, Tevos enters the command room to find a few screens are displaying a 200m long asteroid. With a raised brow Tevos looks to the ships Captain, searching for an answer. "Just dropped out the Relay." The Captain replies with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Over the next 72 hours, larger and larger asteroids end off leaving the Relay, with each asteroid differing from the last in composition, size and mass. Eventually, the Humans send asteroids too large and too heavy through the Relay, resulting in the QRF fleet having to take emergency manoeuvres to dodge the high-speed remnants of what once must have been a vast asteroid. The Asteroids shredded by the Relays' self-preservation mechanisms. Of the asteroids that did survive, ships searched them for any technology that the Humans may have left behind on them, and sure enough a few pieces of kit which must have been sensors were recovered. Then the Relay went quiet for a full week with not a single peep of activity.

Just when people started to think that Relay is going to be inactive for a prolonged period, a single object came through, and Tevos once more finds herself on the bridge of the Destiny Ascension. On a screen, there is a large white sphere, and a few readings of the construct tells her it is approximately 200 meters in circumference, but nothing much else is known about it. Is it a ship? A station? One would not know from its appearance alone.

"Device has begun to spin." Someone announces, and sure enough, the Human device begins to spin, at first, its angular velocity is quite low, but eventually, after watching for a few minutes, its rotational speed is at 880 revolutions per minute. What is it with Humans and Spinning devices, Tevos wonders quietly.

"Detecting Relay activity." Someone else says moments after the sphere has stabilised at 880 revolutions a minute. Looking to another monitor Tevos witnesses four small vessels dropping out of the Relay; these vessels are the known Stealth Vessels, and they do not take long before cloaking themselves, retreating back into the cold darkness of space. There is a small period before the same voice can be heard again, "Detecting further activity."

Looking to another monitor which is observing the Relay Tevos allows a small frown to caress her face, the rings on the Relay are spinning fast - dangerously fast. "Whatever they are sending through," The ships' Captain begins to say, "It's perilously heavy." The heavier the object, the more a relay has to work to send it vast distances, and this results in a maximum weight allowance on ships travelling through the Relay system.

Eventually, when Tevos does not believe the rings can spin any faster two vessels drop out of the Relay. The first vessel is a new type of ship, its 300m long and its hull looks like it is capable of receiving severe punishment which is confirmed when sensors on the Destiny Ascension verify it is made of Relay metal. The second ship makes Tevos wince; it is the missing Salarian vessel and its engines look warped and malformed, meaning its most likely been subject to extreme heat. So the Salarians either melted their engine trying to run from the Humans, or they were attacked.

"The Fleet Commander has attempted to hail the Salarian Vessel. They are not responding."

"Yes." The Matriarch in command of the Ascension says, "When Salarian vessels are boarded they tend to complete a full electronics purge. They won't have any software to run their comms, meaning they are unlikely to know we are even hailing them. Also, is it me, or does this new vessel look like its drifting?" It is hard to deny that the new vessel does not look like it is drifting, since dropping out the Relay it has started to slowly spin in the X and Y plane, and some lights along its hull are flickering, which tells the Matriarch that it is unlikely to be in control. "Can someone get me a mass reading?"

It takes a few seconds but eventually, a sensor expert says, "Initial reading puts it at 620,000 metric tonnes."

"No wonder the rings were spinning so fast." Comments the Captain, knowing that maximum safe weight allowance for Relay transit is 650,000 tonnes. "How long is the ship?"

"300 meters."

The Matriarch frowns yet again, the ship is very small for that weight. "We are under the impression they have no element zero aren't we?"

"Correct." Tevos informs as the Human ship seems to regain control of itself and stops its uncontrolled spin.

"Then that will explain the weight as they don't have an element zero drive to reduce its mass."

Approaching a monitor Tevos notices something on the unknown vessel and points to it, "Zoom in here." Shortly the monitor is zoomed into a small segment on the ships hull. "SSV Praetorian. Do we have a translation for this?" Asari vessels are given names that reflect their purpose, so for example a scout vessel would be named after some great explorer. Maybe humans follow the same protocol?

After a while someone comes back with an answer for the Councillor. "SSV is an acronym for Systems alliance Space Vehicle. Praetorian as far as we can understand is someone that used to protect a Roman Emperor, with a Roman being a Sea Bream - a fish."

Tevos raises a brow at the last two words, "Are you sure the definition of Roman is correct?"

The Asari who give her the translation looks like she is not 100 per cent sure, "According to their document, Roman is a noun, and its a Sea Bream, a type of red or pink fish."

The Asari do not have long to contemplate what the name means however as the Salarian vessel slowly begins to move towards the QRF fleet, resulting in the Fleet Commander making a small change to the formation of the fleet. How the ship is being moved no one is sure as its engines are visibly fried. After a while of merely observing the Salarian vessel, Tevos witnesses from the comfort of the Destinies bridge as a Turian frigate leaves the fleet and moves to intercept it.

When the Turian vessel docks Tevos watches from behind a monitor as Turian Marines board the Salarian Vessel through the cameras on their body armour, and thankfully nothing seems to be out of place. The Salarians onboard seem fine, if not a little bored, but if Tevos wants to find out what happened then she will need to wait. The Turians who boarded are too professional to ask questions out of curiosity, so she will need to wait for the ship's Captain to be interviewed and a report filed.

**2 hours later**

Tevos sits down at a table in one of the Destiny Ascensions many messes as she reads over a report that details what happened to the Salarian Vessel. As she reads over the report she drinks an Asari tea that is a particular favourite of hers. According to the report, the Salarians were scanning a gas giant when they were attacked from nowhere. They did not receive anything to indicate the Humans attempted contact before hostilities, nor did they have any indication they were even being watched. The attack was a swift affair, with the Humans disabling engines and weapons simultaneously, leaving the Salarian craft helpless. At this point in time, the Salarian Captain ordered a complete purge of all electronics on the ship, which unfortunately deleted any information they did gather, even information of the attack.

Before Tevos can read much further, a voice calls to her, "Mind if I join you?"

Looking up Tevos blinks and she is soon joined by the ships Captain. "So," Tevos begins, putting the report she was reading down. "Any more news?"

"Situation no change." The Captain replies before gesturing to the report now resting on the table. "How is your report reading?"

"Like a diplomatic nightmare. I assume you have read it?"

The Captain blinks, "Yes. The humans attacking doesn't surprise me."

"It does not?"

"No." The Captain clenches her hands around her own mug of Asari tea, "These humans, they are fond of Stealth Vessels, which leads me to naturally believe they will have a lot of doctrine based around stealth warfare. Now, you introduce the Salarians in a Stealth Vessel probing their home system while a alien fleet is in their home system and a Batarian fleet is waiting at their systems door, and you can bet they will not take kindly to that. If I were the gambling type, I would say these humans may even view that as a precursor to invasion, which is why they demanded you leave their space. What has surprised me is that they have returned the Salarians so soon."

"Because you would want to see who comes calling for their lost ship? You could gain a considerable advantage on a political table with this."

"Not quite," The Captain clenches, "Because they are letting us know they have better stealth technology and can find our stealth vessels with ease. We now have a much clearer understanding of how out matched our stealth vessels are and considering we are by design not supposed to know how capable stealth vessels are, we have just gained a greater understanding of their own."

"Or," Tevos counters, "They are trying to stop any more Stealth Vessels from entering their space by telling us outright that we are no match in the stealth department? Or they realised they made a mistake attacking the vessel and are hoping by returning our people we do not do something..." Hearing her omni-tool begin to ring Tevos answers the call before quickly putting placing the Omni-tool down so that the ships Captain can see its display. "The Human box, its beeping," Tevos announces as she presses a few buttons, bringing up a live video feed from the First Contact team.

From the angle of the video, Tevos can see the back of an Asari who is about to accept the human call, and the box itself, meaning she will be able to witness the interaction. After pressing a red button on the human box a holographic image of a human woman forms from the top of the comms device. The conversation that follows is short, with the Human very much taking the lead in the conversation. After what must be about 5 minutes, the human ends the dialogue, and the human communication box deactivates.

It takes no more than 5 minutes for the conversation to be translated thanks to AVINA translation software and Tevos allows a small smile as she reads the transcript's bluff. "The Humans have thanked the fleet for their patience, and have requested for docking procedures. They are going to send a party of ten, to the Ascension."

**30 minutes later - AEV Destiny Ascension Hanger Bay.**

"The shuttle," The Ascensions Captain says as she gestures to the small human vessel which is just about to arrive, "Check this out. Its hull is made from Relay metal, if that isn't impressive on its own, its age is even more so, it is 2 days old. The Praetorian, 5 days old. They made that ship in under a week."

Tevos clenches her fists slightly, showing a little disbelief, "Sensors must be wrong?"

"I thought that too." Admits the Captain, "But look at this." The Captain raises an image on her omni-tool, "That is a close up of their docking port."

Tevos looks at the image and notices that the port is to Citadel Standards, and it's built into the hull, meaning it isn't an addition to the ship post-production. "Okay," She admits, "They made a vessel of Relay metal in under a week. What our shipyards would do to get some of that capability."

"Eezo tech could make a good trade." Implies the Captain.

Tevos once more clenches her fists. "No. Producing Relay Metal on that scale is the holy grail of material science, and I bet they know it. I think we would have to work hard to make that deal a reality. Also, they have the Hanar ships they half-melted still in their space - they could probably work a few years and get a working model from them."

Seeing that the Human shuttle is about to land Tevos gestures to it with a flick of her head, "Well, let us get this show on the road."


	13. Chapter 13

**So... I forgot to add my review response on to the last chapter - sorry! I had a total brain fart there. **

**Also correction to the last chapter, I had the Praetorian as an SSV vessel, whereas in every other chapter human space assets are under the command of the UNSC. I'll be going back to fix that this week hopefully. I've also realised Irissia is the councillor who replaces Tevos, but I've kept that error up for too long for me to change it now. **

**RR **

**Kira-117: Being able to build all that stuff in quick time is great - if you have the resources. I'm going to take this down the line of capability, but lack the resource type of thing. Right now, in this story, if the Citadel sent their Containment fleet through, Humanity would be in for a wold of pain. **

**Darkcush: Humanity is a small fish in a big pond, they are going to need allies, and what you suggest will be one way for it. **

**Prodigy of War: Cheers! **

**IHateGenericCereal: Thanks! I have to say, it takes me far longer than I care to admit to think of things for them to misread. I want small things we would know easily enough, but big enough at the same time to cause problems. **

**Greatazuredragon: Thanks!**

**CReaper210: First of all, thanks for all your reviews in the last month or so! For the number of hours we can sit down and type this stuff out its nice to get people reviewing the old chapters. By the HFY! you were right, I had a military thinking mindset - this humanity would get curbstomped if the Citadel wanted to go to war, but I was also thinking when I get to it, in the economic and resource terms. Humanity will be competing with organisations that span across the galaxy from a single solar system - if the citadel get out done by this Humanity its either cos I'm playing them up too much, or because they are incompetent. I've tried to make the Citadel affiliated a competent force. **

Tela Vasair sits down on a royal purple sofa in a single elegant motion before crossing her right leg over the left and sliding down the chair, giving her a seductive pose. To Tela's side stands Urdnot Wrex in his scratched, battle-tested armour, his beady red eyes are scanning the room, taking in its every detail. "Master shall be along shortly." A slave Batarian informs, "Would you like refreshments in the meantime?"

Wrex is the first to respond. "Ryncol," Is his single worded request. Tela opts for a more delicate water - drinking on the job is unprofessional.

By the time the 'Master' comes, Wrex has been served two servings of Ryncol, and Tela has become most bored, the Batarian has used a common Hegemony tactic on her of making her wait for him. As he approaches the sofa, Tela does not stand as is expected, if the Master wants to play games by making her wait, then she too can play her games. "Your late." She says with an obvious lack of interest expressed in her tone; she offers no form of greeting - an insult in Batarian culture. "And that's close enough, I can smell you from here."

The Master shows no reaction to not being greeted or her initial statement, and instead brushes it off to say, "The Council will always come second to his Hegemony, Spectre." Silently Vasir is impressed she did not receive a bite to any of her previous comments.

"Well," Tela says as she moves to stand from the sofa, "You have wasted enough of my time. Let us get this transaction over with."

"Yes, I suppose we should," The Master replies before looking to Wrex, "Your creature for sale? For a Krogan he is unusually large."

Tela hears an audible rumble from the Krogan to her side before hearing his loud footsteps as he takes a few strides forward and towards the Batarian, "Do I look for sale?" He asks pointedly, his red beady eyes looking into the Batarians own - even Tela silently admits to herself that she would squirm under such observation.

Unsurprisingly the Master quickly back steps from the Krogan and says, "This way," To Tela. "Leave your brute here."

As Wrex grumbles something along the lines of 'thought not' Tela falls into step with the Batarian. "So," Tela asks, "Is there anything I need to know about it?"

"Other than the fact we have no means to talk with it, and Asari can't meld with it; no." The Master says before leading Tela through a thick wooden door and into a small living area with numerous beds set up. "There it is." The Master then says while gesturing to a Human laying lazily on a bed.

Tela has seen the first contact report released by the Council, and the more secret reports, so she knows that this creature is actually a Human and not some dim-witted prank by the Hegemony. What does surprise her is despite knowing what they look like, the pictures and videos do not do the species justice; they look even more like Asari in person. Looking around the room, Tela also notices another occupant, a one she will be back for later, a one related to Aria T'loak. Tela could not believe her luck when her Council tasking had her going to the exact same place as her job for Aria.

**/.../**

**AEV Destiny Ascension.**

In the small-time they had before the Humans arrived, it was argued what type of affair this event should be. Some corners of the First Contact team argued that this should be a grand affair, with all the bells and whistles, but others argued that it should be a small but formal event. Eventually, it was decided that the affair would be a small one, in order to replicate what the Humans had done for themselves, that way, it would not look like they were trying to outshine the Humans. At this point in the negotiations, everything needs to be done in a way that makes the Humans feel comfortable, all to increase the chances of positive relations. Yes, making the new species feel 'comfy' may be a costly manner of doing things, but the riches that come after far outweigh negative relationships. Once an initial peace deal is signed, and some positive relations are made, then and only then would one think about trying to show off.

Waiting for the Humans to disembark from their shuttle are four representatives of the Council species, so a Turian, an Asari, a Batarian and a Salarian, along with a few other officials such as the Captain of the Destiny Ascension and Matriarch Benezzia whose role is to assist with translations. Of all those gathered, only the Turian and Asari representatives are actually trained in First Contact protocols. The Salarian representative is actually a diplomat whose most exceptional work includes negotiating trade deals with the reclusive Quarian Fleet, and the Batarian is the admiral of their fleet. This is because Salarians live short lives meaning that the chances of experiencing a First Contact in one's life are slim, so a 'calculating' Salarian would not waste their short lives in training for something highly unlikely to happen to them, and as far as Tevos is aware, Batarians do not hassle with 'First Contact', preferring to leave that to the Council - when not in their space. The true reason the Batarian is in attendance is that his fleet is currently with the rest of the Council fleet, and due to their proximity to Human space, it would be prudent to include them. Truthfully, including the Batarians' is more for Humanity's own protection than to make Citadel diplomacy easier with the Hegemony. The only other addition is the Ascensions Media officer whose job it is to record the event, they have no role interacting with the Humans.

Of those gathered, Tevos stands to the back, preferring to let the professionals handle the situation, but she also wishes to be close enough to witness the event first hand. After all, first contacts are usually historical events, and the Councillor has no doubt this will not be a moment for the history books. The news cameras are already rolling, and the Humans are yet to step out of their craft.

After a small period in wait, a ramp at the rear of the Human shuttle lowers with a mechanical whine to make contact with the floor of the hanger, and just as the ramp touches the floor a familiar Human with green hair begins to walk down the ramp. Fortunately, the Human is not in armour, carrying weapons, or walking with a demeanour that could cause concern, instead, the Human is dressed in plain clothes and walking with a little caution as they look around their new alien surroundings. Tevos recognises the Human immediately, the alien is the one responsible for rescuing the Avians crew and providing security on the tour of their homeworld. It is worrying that Humanity would send their soldiers for the negotiations, but it is also curious as to why this soldier is not wearing her armour; unless she is not here in an official capacity.

After a small-time period a second, then third, and finally forth person follows the green-haired Marine down the ramp. All the Humans look different from one another, they do not wear the same clothes, they don't have the same hairstyle, skin colour, facial features, no, they are truly diverse from one another - maybe by design. To the contrary, all Asari are almost indistinguishable except from slight skin tone variation, all Turians are at least the same height and the same metallic colour and all Salarians at least have the same skin tone, along with their trademark black eyes.

The initial greeting seemed to go well from Tevos's perspective, with the green-haired soldier leading, there was an initial bow of the head towards the Asari, but a more unsure shake of the hands with the Turians and Salarians, with the Batarians they seemed even more uncertain, maybe even cautious. Why they are careful of the Batarians Tevos is unsure, so far the Humans have not shown too much caution for anything they have done in person. Eventually, it comes evidently to Tevos that the Humans have obviously gone over any recordings they have made, and have realised that Asari typically bows their heads in greetings. In contrast, Turians only have verbal greetings, and Tevos would come to learn later that the Humans had tried to say these, but their vocal cords are physically unable to make the notes required, much like her own species. Salarians are able to greet one another by flushing the skin on their faces with a chemical that creates a small glow outside the Asari visible spectrum. Tevos doubts the Humans are even aware of this; it took the Asari an embarrassingly long time before someone realised. The longest part of the entire initial introductions was the Salarian announcing his complete name and the Humans trying to repeat it. After all, any given Salarian will have six names, the 'first' name is their homeworld, followed by nation, then the city, trailed by district, then clan name, and last of all, is their given name. This particular Salarians name is Rannadril Ghan Swa Fulsoom Karaten Narr Eadi Bel Anura.

After the initial greetings pass, it comes apparent that the Marine is only in attendance to provide a known and friendly face and is only here to try and make the initial disembarkment from the shuttle to go a little bit smoother. It also comes clear that while the Citadel Fist Contact team were expecting ten Humans, this was a mistranslation, and only five are in attendance, the Marine, the three diplomats, and an unseen pilot who is still onboard their shuttle. This mistranslation silently raises the question if the interpretation team is up to the task of negotiating a peace deal, but this will have to be seen.

Realising that the Marine will be returning to their shuttle, having no part to play once past the initial greeting, an idea was quickly posed by the Captain of the Ascension; while the diplomats do their thing, why not give the two other humans a tour of her vessel? After all the Humans had openly invited them to their home, so it would be rude not to return the favour, even if she could only offer the Destiny Ascension at this moment in time.

The flouted idea caused a conversation among the Humans in their native tongue, most likely so her people would not understand. Eventually, it was settled that only the Marine would attend this tour - their pilot is to remain on the shuttle for 'opsec' reasons. Tevos may not be military, but she understands the intent of this, they are leaving a person behind on their shuttle to stop any unwanted visitors from sneaking on board when no one is there and having a good snoop around.

When the diplomats leave the hanger bay to go into what will most likely be long-drawn and dry discussions with one another, Tevos, the Captain of the Ascension and the Marine are left behind and to their own devices for the tour. While one might expect more security due to a Councillor being in attendance, the fact the Marine is known to Tevos, and both herself and the ship's Captain are powerful biotics, it's decided that no more security is needed. Had the Marine been armed, or had the Aliens shown less desire to get to know the Council species when in their home system, then the likelihood would be that some security would have been provided, or Tevos would not participate.

When the Human realises who is to be her guides, she turns to Tevos with a slight frown, "Prothean?" She asks.

Tevos points to her omni-tool as she replies in her own native tongue, "In a fashion." A small implant resting on her audible nerve provides her with a real-time translation, and her omni-tool translates her native language into Prothean. This was not previously available on Earth as the software required to make the translation was not available.

"And yourself?" The Human asks the Captain.

"Much alike." The Captain replies, which makes the Human look a little relieved, probably because it's going to have someone to talk to. "My name is Irissia, and this is Tevos." The Captain gestures to Tevos, "If I am correct, you were with the ground team and rescued the Avians crew?"

The Human waits for the omni-tool to complete Irissia's translation before asking, "Your Prothean difficult, say again?" Irissia does as asked, allowing the Human to say, "Correct. Name is Shepard." The Human holds her hand out, resulting in Tevos and Irissia shaking her hand in turn. "So, where to?"

Usually, a tour of the Destiny Ascension would start at the docking port, where a small room is set aside to explain the origins of the ship, and why such a ship was dreamed of by Matriarch E'Lenor, but Captain Irissia feels like such an explanation is not needed. The Human does not need to know of two galactic wars, an AI uprising and the Councils general fear of the unknown - yet. Instead, Irissia asks the question, "Where would you like to start? We have the engine room, the..."

The Human cuts Irissa off, in a polite way, to ask, "Show me you." The request at first causes some initial confusion, but it's quickly realised what the Humans intent is; she wants to see the Asari. The aliens request at first seems simple, but thinking on it, how does one show the 'Asari' on a warship that is not the embodiment of the Asari themselves? Would Humanity claim they could show their own species off on a warship? Irissia doubts it, but she is not afraid to shy away from the challenge.

"Then we start on deck 19."

Deck 19 is the 'amusements' deck, for those on the vessel with a day off, it contains restaurants, gyms, entertainment halls, and numerous other means to keep the 10,000 strong crew busy on their down days. Arguably, the deck is one of the most important as it keeps morale high and Asari sane on long missions.

The first 'challenge' was passing through security, where the Human managed to set off some alarms, how, Tevos is not initially sure of, the Human was just walking, and she had nothing on her except herself and her clothes. With a wave of the Captain's wrist to head of security, the warnings are silenced, and the tour continues, but Tevos makes a note to investigate why the alarm went off. Getting to deck 19 itself was not too difficult, it required a short walk along some half busy corridors to an external elevator and then a ride 21 decks up. As the elevator slowly makes its way to the top floor the Human perks up, saying, "So, you're the Captain of this vessel, but I'm not sure who you are." Once more a few words need to be clarified for a full understanding of the Humans Prothean. Before either Tevos or Irissia can respond and deflect the question to hide the Councillors true identity, the Human continues to speak, "Your people surprised to see you, as much as myself."

Irissia starts to reply, but a look from Tevos stops her, allowing the Councillor to say, "When we first met, you said something to me, what did you say?"

The Human gives a rather Asari like frown, before saying, "leader."

Tevos quickly blinks her eyes, "I am a representative of my people on a Council. How did you know back then?"

"A job role I have is to protect important people," The Human confesses, "The spikey guys, the Turians? they give you away." The reply Tevos gets is broken, but she understands the gist of the message.

"And what is your job?" The Captain inquires.

"I am a soldier." The green-haired Human admits as she takes to looking out a window in the elevator. The elevators window allows the Human to look outside of the Destiny Ascension, and onto the rest of the fleet that is hovering in nearby space.

"Then how do you know Prothean?" Tevos asks. The Councillor knows if she asks in the right way, she may gain some insight into how much technology the Humans have from the Protheans.

The Human turns from looking out the window of the elevator to tap her head, the first word she says Tevos takes to mean computer, the second word, however, is unknown to Tevos's translator. Eventually, after some back and forth, it is settled that the Human is saying a 'head computer.' The Councillor takes this to mean that she, much like herself, has a chip in her head that allows her to translate, but from the sounds of things, unlike her own, it will enable the Human to speak Prothean real-time, making it far more advanced than Tevos's translation tech.

Feeling necky, Tevos asks, "How did your people learn Prothean?"

The Human has an initial hesitant look as if they are debating about telling or not, but after some seconds to contemplate she says, "Talking word book. You?" This does not really confirm much to Tevos, the Humans have had to have come across a beacon of some sort to know the language; what she really wants to know is just what type of beacon they came across. The problem is, Tevos does not feel like she will get that answer - yet. The Human in front of her is military, and military people are usually trained to keep their tongues tight on security matters; to this Human this type of information is probably 'security' enough to stay quiet - if she even knows.

"Similar," Tevos eventually responds while knowing full well that there is a large Prothean data cache hidden away in a temple on Thessia. The Human seems to shrug her shoulders like this was no big deal, allowing her to go back to looking out the window as the elevator slowly makes its way to the 19th deck.

After a while, the Captain asks, "Do you have Faster Than Light?"

The Human seems uncertain of her answer before saying, "Not my place to say." She then taps the elevators thick glass, pointing to a ship in close proximity to the Ascension. "What type of ship." It is an obvious attempt to distract from the question, and Tevos can't blame her. The question asked can reveal just how vulnerable Humanity is.

The ship the Human has pointed to is the Turians QRF Dreadnought. "HWV Accipitridae. Turian dreadnought." The Captain informs. "Does it look anything like your dreadnoughts?" This could tell the Captain a lot of information about how Humans fight their battles.

The Human shakes her head, "That ship is kind on eyes. Ours not so much." Irissia thinks on the answer and understands where the Human is coming from. While Turians are very practically minded, they do also like having vessels that sacrifice some practicality for aesthetics - after all, they like to show off their military to regularly remind people they have the biggest stick. In short, the Turians want people to look at their vessels, so they need eye-catching ships. When hostilities arise, this approach often goes under review, and vessels that favour function over aesthetics quickly return. Eventually, the Human turns from the window to ask, "This ship bigger?"

Irissia is sure the Human probably already knows that it is, but is trying to make some conversation. "Yes, the Ascension is 1km long, 1.7 wide by 2 tall."

As the Human, now known as Shepard, and Irissa go on to talk some more about the ship, Tevos receives a notification on her omni-tool and loads it up to find a message from the ships security department. With a small frown, she flicks through the email, skimming its essential details, and eventually, she lands on a scan of the Human that is standing just a few feet away from her. The Human must have undergone some extensive augmentation procedures, she has bones reinforced with graphene, muscle weaves, and embedded technology inside of her, all of which is highly illegal in Citadel space. More curiously, Shepard also has traces of Eezo in the graphene of her reinforced bones, meaning she has either been exposed to it recently, or she is biotic. The latter is something Tevos doubts, her reasoning being from Shepard's reaction on Earth at seeing her own and Benezzia's little biotic show.

With a frown, Tevos closes her omni-tool as the door to the elevator opens, exposing deck 19. The Humans presence at first seems to cause everything to come to a halt, if this Shepard notices, then the Human doesn't mention it as she steps out the elevator and looks around. Immediately in front of her is a dozen or so street vendor style food courts, and a large comfortable seating area. At the moment, maybe a hundred Asari are sat down eating, and maybe a dozen others are at the stalls, waiting for food to be cooked for them. In Tevos's opinion, the food in this court is junk food, it is fast to make, and filled with chemicals and sugar to make them edible, but she can't deny that the vendors serve tasty food.

Instead of asking to get stuck in and try some food, or find out what else is on offer, the Human asks for something different, she asks for directions to the nearest toilet.

**UNSC Praetorian.**

The Captain of the vessel follows the Doctor around the room as the Doctor shows multiple different screens and sets of data to him. Over the last twenty minutes, dozens of his crew have come down with sickness, and the Captain fears a bug has broken out on his ship, but the Doctor thinks differently. The Doctor can find no viruses in people's blood, no bacteria infections, nothing, instead, the Doctor thinks they are experiencing radiation sickness, but not one sensor onboard the Praetorian has detected a leak of radiation. In addition, the 4 stealth ships that have joined them are reporting something similar among their own crew. Seeing another person come into the medical bay looking a little unsteady on their feet the Captain scowls, something has happened to his crew, yet nobody seems to know what.

Looking back to the Doctor the Captain suppresses a grim scowl as he points to his own nose, his Doctor has come down with a nose bleed - and the Captain bets it is related. Thinking on his feet the Captain can only think of one thing, that dam alien device they just travelled through has done something to them.

**Cheers for reading. I'm sure most of you have already figured out what is going on.**

**ALSO, I hope you are all safe in this crazy mad time. I wish all the best for you, so keep safe wherever in the world you are reading from. **


	14. Chapter 14

**RR**

**NovaSaber: You have to remember Humans in this universe have little to no idea about Eezo. They don't know how it works, and if you remember in an earlier chapter, the Turian PC stated that you had to have eezo to detect eezo. We will find out shortly why its so bad.**

**IHateGenericCereal: I want to keep the whole misunderstandings going. The first bit of this chapter goes over how this is still very much a thing. Thanks.**

**The Gandhara: The PC and Fannus have been sent to contain the Humans, and they are acting in the best interest of their crew and people. As for why they are so twitchy is because The Humans in this story have been shown to be big fans of Stealth. Imagine you came across some people you didn't know with big guns and good body armour and you know they are around you, watching you, but you don't know where they are, or how they think - I think you would also be very careful.**

**JulesCasey: Thanks for your review. You must have spent a considerable amount of time writing that, so I'll answer a few things here. The Council are more advanced than in the games, but not significantly more so. FTL is being worked on - and is partially due to why the Human economy is now based on Energy reserves. Protheans and Reapers... Err might want to read this chapter... but don't have much planned - its coming up to 50,000 years since the last cycle. The comment about being stomped by the Council, if I remember rightly that is speculation. No one in this story really knows what powers and capabilities the others have.**

/.../

Nassana Dantius, the Asari diplomat sent to negotiate with the Humans and initiate 'official' first contact opens the wooden door to the room designated for the initial talks and gestures for the Humans to enter. Prior to reaching the room Nassana found she had to direct one of the Humans to a toilet as they came down with a 'nose bleed'. A trickling of bright crimson red blood from their nose. The bright red nature of the blood surprised Nassana, she had expected something less vivid, maybe a darkish brown or marron.

As there are only three humans, to not make them feel uncomfortable and intimidated by being outnumbered in the negotiations, only the Asari, Turian and Salarian representative will be in the talks. The Batarian admiral has been told he will sit this one out, however, he will have the liberty to listen in to all conversations from a nearby room. If the Batarian has any points, they will be raised by the Council representatives. When all the Humans have entered the room, the Council representatives follow and then take a seat at a large round table. They did not use a square or rectangle table to subtly play mind games; experiments on Council species have regularly shown that a square or rectangle table with opposite sides occupied help compound the 'them verse us' idea in one's mind.

The Humans, having been carrying leather briefcases with them, open them up when they are sat down at the table and Nasanna finds that they have been carrying a few different things with them. In one suitcase she finds they have brought paper and rather fancy looking writing utensils, some are ink based, others are pencil based. In one of the suitcases, there appears to be some device of some sort, what its purpose is Nassana could only guess, but she quickly finds it is a portable printer. In the last suitcase carried by the third Human, Nassana finds the Humans have brought a few thermal flasks, mugs and what must be edibles. A wise idea Nassana thinks, knowing a hungry stomach can effect how one thinks; she would not want to negotiate when hungry. When the Humans are set up and ready for the talks Nassana finds that they each have a mug and a biscuit in front of them; they had offered some to Nassana and her team but they politely declined - they will have their own treats.

As with most things so far, once the Humans have set themselves up, Nassana allows the Humans to lead the discussion, which results in the Humans announcing that they want to dictate temporary borders and sign a treaty of non-aggression. The request is reasonable, so Nasanna starts on the first topic, it is the simple question of 'What is aggression'? Humanity may view aggression very differently to the Council, and Nassana is expecting it. No one race has the same laws on what exactly aggression is. For example, Electronic Warfare is not seen as aggression worth military action by the Asari, but a Turian would see this as a military attack, and respond with firepower, and the Salarians would view it as a challenge and hack back. The talks on the definition of aggression last a considerable time, so long that the Humans finish then refill their drinks. The talks hit many topics, from powering shields, to how one turns their vessel to face another. The most interesting, and quietly embarrassing revelation is how Humanity view Stealth Vessels in their space as a serious transgression, with a small quip that wars have been started on less. While true, Nasanna would learn many years later the human diplomat was thinking of a Human war fought over a bucket of all things in which more than 2000 men died.

Just as Nassana thinks the topic of Stealth Vessels are about to be dropped, the Humans continue, saying, "So to clarify, these three vessels will not enter our space? Swipe the screen left to right." The Human speaking hands over one of their 'Phones' to Nassana so she can see what they are talking of.

Nassana raises a brow, she knows there are now two Salarian Reconnaissance vessels in nearby orbit, and she knows one of them the Humans already know of, they attacked it and dragged it here after all, but the claims of a third vessel she is puzzled by. With great curiosity Nassana does as asked, her first swipe produces an image of a Salarian Vessel, the single reccy ship which has not been rough handled by the Humans. The second swipe, however, causes great concern in Nassana, the image clearly shows a small Geth vessel, the design is without question. With some dread at what is to come next, Nassana swipes right again, this time the vessel is unknown to all the Council representatives. The unfamiliar ship is a giant insectoid looking thing with what looks like insect-like legs, its design is definitely meant to intimidate. Pushing the tablet device back to the Human Nassana schools her emotions to inform them that the last two vessels are not Council, and thus she can not speak for them. This causes some internal discussion among the Humans and eventually one starts to type a message out on their phone. As the Humans do their own thing, the Turian representative calls an aid over and informs them to alert the captain of the ship of the Geth - their presence will be of great concern to the Primarch's Chosen and the Fleet Commander. The other unknown 'insect' vessel while worthy of great interest, are ultimately of a lower priority and will probably be ignored.

Thinking on it, Nassana understands why the Humans have informed them they know of the Stealth Vessels, it is to say 'We can see you.' It also stops the Council from denying knowledge of their existence, but the Council can play this game too. "Since we are talking of Stealth Vessels," Nassana announces, "We also know you have them, and we know they are here with you. We would expect the same courtesy to apply, they will not enter our territory." The Humans accept this without issue.

After what seems like hours of talking just to agree on what 'Aggression' means, the matter of borders is raised. Typically, Nassana finds borders in space are far easier to call than land borders as there are some very fair and standard rules that one follows. The essential Council regulations that Nasanna must follow for today states that the single known Human system - their home system, is their sovereign territory, the Council, nor any affiliated state can lay claim to it. The other rule, which Nasanna must follow will cause issues, as this rule claims the system immediately connected to the home system is also theirs, whether they have requested it or not. This rule was implemented as it stops Council Patrols from straying too close to a Home system which has in the past been viewed as aggression by Council races; most notably by the Elcor.

The problem Nassana has today is that the system they are currently in is owned by the Batarians, and now by Council law, it should rightfully belong to the Humans. Because the Batarians have not invested anything in colonising this system, that shouldn't be a problem, but the Batarians will not take kindly to it. This, however, is a problem for the Council at a later date when more thorough negotiations begin, right now, they simply need a line set in the sand where the Council do no venture without express permission. A sphere with a radius of 384,400km around the Relay is proposed as an exclusion zone.

When the Salarian representative explains this, the Humans look among themselves and have a light discussion before asking what the Council determine 'Exclusion Zone' to mean. The answer is simple, and it is the Turian who replies, articulating that no Citadel affiliated vessel will enter. The Humans again raise the point that this must include Stealth Vessels, and the Citadel team agree that it does. Before agreeing with the exclusion zone, the Humans ask yet another simple question, how big is a Citadel km? Just because they may have the same Prothean name for it, that does not mean that a Human km is the same length as a Citadel km. The solution to this is unusual, but something that is indisputable. The Salarian to Nassana's right gives the length of the Relay to human space in kilometres, accurate to the millimetre, with this, the Humans should have no issue with determining their interpretation of 384,400km. After some quick maths the Humans nod between themselves, to them, the exclusion zone is more than acceptable.

There are half a dozen more items discussed before Nassana hears the golden words of, "So, all we need to do now is put the terms on paper." Nassana allows a small celebration inside her head, the Humans, while being thorough about terminology, are being rather agreeable; she can work with this. The most important part that Nasanna can deduce is that the Human's do not want any hostilities, the hours of talking about 'what is agression' taught her that. Despite the small internal celebration, Nassana knows the real hard part of the day's activities is upon them; constructing the document which states in clear writing what has been agreed. This is because despite the relatively short nature of the talks so far, there have been countless words that have had to be explained because of language difficulties, and some of them have been simple words that appear in everyday conversation. To write a legal document with these issues, Nassana knows that it is going to be a long and dull task. She knows if the Humans are anything like herself, then they are about to scrutinise every word written before they even think of signing any treaty, and this can take a lot of time.

Just as they are about to jump into the challenge ahead of them, Nassana frowns as the same Human from earlier raises a hand to their nose, once more there is a trickle of crimson red blood.

/.../

The President of the Systems Alliance stands from his chair and looks out a window on the UNSC Jörmungandr; or at least he thinks he is, in truth the 'window' is just a very high-resolution video screen that is presenting what would be seen if there was a window there. Outside of the Dreadnought, he can see the defensive installations that are being constructed, including the 'Mouse Trap' as the workers have come to know it - officially known as Sol Defense Installation 01. The Mouse Trap is a small ringworld, 7km in circumference that carries tremendous amounts of firepower. If anything comes through uninvited, then it will be met with enough wrath to disintegrate a small planet, along with Jörmungandr, a substantial assortment of Ultron platforms, mines and the rest of Humanities small fleet of stealth vessels. There is even two Planetary Assault Craft in attendance, acting as mobile platforms to launch fighter craft; never in human history has so much firepower been brought together for a single purpose.

When the aliens had left Sol, it was argued what defensive system should be set up around the Relay, some people wanted dozens and dozens of Jörmungandr class dreadnoughts just ready to pounce, with every other type of weapon prepared to go. Even the President must admit that this would be a phenomenal amount of firepower, but while this would have provided the best possible defence, it had a simple problem - who would man these beasts of war? The Navy was small to start with, pitifully small, and most military officers deplored the idea of taking people from the reliable and more advanced Stealth Vessels, heck, just manning the Jörmungandr and the two PAC's was a real task in its own. People who have long been made retired or left service have been called back up just to man what they currently have. The only reason they could man the ringworld is that the ringworld was already under construction as an automated mining facility. In essence, most of its processes are automated, meaning it only needed people to man its guns that have been added hastily into its design. In some secret reports only seen by a handful of people, it can also be found the Ring World is being used because in the future, it can be used as a 'passport office', but the Public does not need to know this yet.

With a sigh, the President retakes his seat and pours himself yet another coffee, "So," He starts off after taking a sip, "We have talked about the alien front, how is the home front? I saw some disturbing footage on the news channels." Unfortunately, the President has noticed that a lot of terminologies he uses these days are military terms, such as home front.

A man who is attending the call via holographic representation shakes his head, "People have started to act more and more irrationally as time goes on. We have people raiding stores, stockpiling random foods and goods, others are taking all their energy reserves from the banks, and then we have those who think protesting is the best way forward. My favourite act of lunacy at the moment is a conspiracy that the QEC centres are inviting the aliens here, resulting in numerous centres being set on fire."

"How long have we had the Quantum centres?" Asks the President with some disbelief, the question does not require a response. "And what are they stockpiling now? Goo still?"

"Replicator goo, Baked Beans and Tomato soup." The man replies, ignoring the sarcastic comment about how long Humanity has had QEC. "The biggest concern is the Replicator Goo, this is essential for space assets." Goo is essential for space assets as it vastly reduces the amount of space required for storing food, it does not go off, and it does not need to be held in special containers to keep it at certain temperatures.

Someone else in the room speaks up with a satirical tone, saying, "Well, I understand the soup and the goo, but the beans?"

The President ignores the joke to ask, "Is there any need to worry yet?"

"We have made farms that harvest goo supplies a top priority, we have people from all trades working the fields and factories. If this keeps up for more than a few weeks, then we then need to begin worrying about it."

"Most people are obtuse." The President responds with a flare of hand gestures, "What can we do to mitigate?"

"Further rationing, instead of 2 cans make it 1. That way, South America will come into summer when we need the next bout of supplies."

"But the crops required for the goo is an invasive species." Supplies the President, knowing that South America does not grow the crop. "But we will be rare if things go south. Do what we need to." Despite all the modern technology available to Humanity, Earth is still by far the biggest producer of organic products, and the Replicators need organic products to work. "After goo, what are the latest and loudest demands?"

"At the moment? They want to know if we are going to build defences on the other side of the Relay, and they want us to start on it already."

The President gestures to Defense Installation 01 with a free hand while saying, "With what resources? Never in human history has so much of our economy been spent on military assets, right now, 63.2% is going straight here."

"A lot of people want more."

"Then we have to cut other projects." President deadpans, "And what will people want us to cut? Welfare? Not happening, infrastructure? That will last till little jimmy down the road has a power cut due to old infrastructure needing to be replaced and he can't charge his house. There is little we can cut unless we outright declare a total war economy - which we are essentially already at. Next time a reporter asks us to spend more, ask him or her what he or she wants us to cut."

A person who has so far been quiet asserted, "Declaring a Total War economy may not be a bad idea." There are no surprises that this person has military links. "It would let us do what we want more so then what we can at the moment. I would love to spend some more on Augments."

Someone disagrees as they immediately speak out, "We declare that and people will become more militant than they already are, and I already know people are digging bunkers in their back yard." Concrete sales have gone through the roof, as has diggers.

"I agree." The President blurts out, "The word 'War and Total' is not what is needed at this moment in time. As far as I want to be concerned, we have an uneasy ceasefire being discussed with the Council people."

"We could make a word up." The person suggests, "Instead of 'Total War' why not, "Preservation Economy', or 'State of Emergency' Economy."

"People will know." The President shakes his head. "I wonder how stressed this Council's economy is at the moment."

"There are multiple species. I bet not much."

Just as the President is about to speak again the military advisor speaks up, "We have just had word back from the UNSC Praetorian, they have declared a medical emergency on board. All four stealth vessels accompanying them has declared a similar situation."

The President sits a little taller in his chair at this news, "Go on."

"People have started to drop down with what appears to be moderate radiation sickness. People are bleeding from their nose, gums, and are vomiting. What worries me is we already have people aboard one of the Council vessels."

The President breathes out a deep breath as he shakes his head, "So we send them through the alien device and they all come out sick as a dog, and now we have sick people negotiating our place in this galaxy."

"Not everyone is showing symptoms." The military advisor says. "Just enough for it to be a big problem. The crew sent to talk could be fine. My largest concern is if this alien device has caused the sickness, bringing people back through it could kill them."

"Can the ships deal with it?" Asks the President. "Do they have enough medical supplies?"

The advisor shakes his head, "The situation is still developing. They don't even know what has happened to the sick yet; they speculate some sort of radiation poisoning but can't find any evidence of it."

"What a mess," The President fumes, "Support them however we can, but I think sending more people through that alien device is out of the question for now."

**Cheers all.**


	15. Chapter 15

RR

IHateGenericCereal: I will get to the wider galaxy next chapter. Plan on revisiting the Turian military academy. Cheers for the review.

Watcher123: Yup you have it. I was going to actually have the TP panic buying feature, but nah, want to have just a little bit of seriousness in this story arc, although I've just written that and bloody hell people panic bought TP for a real-world crisis.

Elerathe: I plan on changing eezo a little to give it more explanation than "space magic".

BlackMagic99: Nope, just a ship full of sick people.

Shaihulud: Thanks for the review, also how can I not add the references? I love/hate coming in from a few weeks away out living in the middle of nowhere and finding out what new craze is going on. I still think the mass panic buying of TP was my favourite.

/.../

Shepard returns from her visit to the toilet with a slightly more upbeat demeanour, what changed in the Human Tevos does not know, but either way, that is not important. What is important right now is that the Human can tell a good story when she is back among her own people, something that can make those who listen to her stories think 'wow' or at least gain a little bit of curiosity. In actuality, Tevos knows that what this Human sees now can define the difficulty of future relations, because this is the first time a Human will see any Asari Culture, and if it likes what it sees, then hopefully it will talk and spread a good message, making her a walking advert for the Citadel species. This will be the event that provides Humanity with their fist impressions of Asari culture, meaning its importance can not be understated. Sure, Tevos knows that it is vital to winning over a species governing body, and they are doing that right now through the more official talks being held elsewhere on the Destiny. Still, she likewise knows its equally important, if not more so to win over the people.

When the Human was away, Tevos and the ship's Captain had time to consider; they wondered between themselves as to what they wanted to show the Human. Tevos wanted to show some aspects of Asari Culture; she wanted to show her the art of Laryissa, the sculptures of Nyreen and the sports that air on prime TV. The ships Captain, on the other hand, had differing ideas, the Human is a known front line soldier, and thinking about a typical front line soldier in the galaxy, it will be a creature in chase of excitement. Typically, this job of showing off Asari culture would have been left to the first contact experts, where a plan is most likely already set in stone, but as the soldier was not expected, the experts were not ready. After some light discussion between Councillor and Captain, it was agreed that the two would take the Human to the Sports Halls. Due to the crew of 10,000, the Sports Halls on the Destiny are well stocked and can accommodate most known Asari sports, even high contact sports such as Slam.

Before setting off to the Sports Halls, the Human asked if she could 'record' the days' activities, and with no real concerns raised by the Captain as the tour was not going to go to any sensitive parts of the ship, permission was quickly given. In part, permission was given so easily because Tevos wanted the Human to have something to take back to her own people on top of stories, but it was also permitted as Humanity allowed the ground team to record when on their homeworld freely. Granted, the Destiny is a warship meaning different rules will apply for recording equipment, but she is a well documented and photographed ship at that. Instead of doing something expected such as pulling out some sort of recording device, or powering up something equivalent to an omni-tool, the Human just blinks her eyes, resulting in a slight blue glow around the Human's green iris's. It is a little unsettling to Tevos at first, but thinking on it, she has seen the scan of the Human and knows to what extreme degree it has been augmented.

The shortest route to the sports hall is through the Botanical Gardens of Thessia, a large room dedicated to relaxation, and as the name suggests, the room has a garden that is tendered to a high standard by the vessels gardening club. As the Captain explains the importance of the room for the crews mental well being, Tevos can tell by the Humans eyes that it is more interested in the plants and its surroundings than the explanation, so the simple question is raised, asking if the Human is into gardening. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depending on who you asked, the Human admits that it is, which results in a good half hour of simply exploring the plants in the garden. Tevos, having her own extensive garden at her estate on Thessia and her home on the Citadel was often the one who explained the flowers, knowing from her own experience what they were.

As the Human happily investigates some Thespian flowers, it occurs to Tevos that as a collective, the Council do not really know what is important to Humans yet. It is evident that wildlife is high on the list; otherwise, they probably would not have been so keen to show them off when the ground team went to their world, but other than that, what do these Humans really care about? This one has an apparent interest in botany, is this shared among many other humans? Should Tevos and the Captain just spend the rest of the tour in this one single room? Or is this Human a false representation of Humanity? The sad truth is the fact that no one on the Destiny knows, or could even hypothesis, Humanity simply still has too many unknowns.

After a while, the Human breaks away from the plants and apologises, mentioning that she could have stayed all day, but understands that time is of a limiting factor so they should probably move on. While the Captain was not too pleased the Human shares the same interest in flowers as the Councillor, the time spent flower watching did allow her to ensure some sports are being played in the sports halls.

Getting into the sports halls the Captain is pleased to see that a round of Slam is just about to begin, with Slam being a high contact sport that makes big credits in Asari space. Some Slam athletes can earn as much as 10 million credits in just one season, which bewilders most; however, the athletes can often receive nasty life-lasting injuries such as broken bones that result in paralysis and fractured skulls. The aim of the game is to secure a flag in the middle of the pitch, and return it to your own 'home base' but as three teams are in play at any one time, it can create some fascinating games that suck in viewers. The three teams playing today are from the Engineering department, the Essential department and the Commandos. Typically, the Commandos are the far more powerful biotics and have the upper hand in any game they play. In a 1v1 the Commandos would win against any other department on the ship, however, as three teams play on the same triangular pitch and at the same time, often an uneasy alliance can be found in the first few rounds, pitching the two other teams against the Commandos.

In the game, biotics can be used to hurl people around the pitch, or if close enough, a form of hand to hand can be used to slam someone to the ground. It is all, Tevos must admit, very exciting, with something going on at all times, be it a show of biotic strength or deceit and sly tactics from a certain team, and it is for this reason it has become one of the largest games within Asari space.

Before the game starts, Tevos takes a seat with the Captain and Human at the back of some stands, and then when they are sat someone brings over a nutty snack and a drink of some sort. When handed the beverage, the Human makes some comment regarding that this is a familiar scene before getting what Tevos recognises to be a 'mobile' out to scan the drink and food. After a very Asari looking shrug, the Human begins to nibble away at the nuts and sip at the drink supplied, which Tevos notes is alcoholic.

When the game begins after a quick and basic description of the rules by Tevos, the Councillor watches the Human with interest, looking for her reaction. At first, Tevos notices the Human looks interested in what is going on, then something happens which confirms to Tevos with absolute certainty the Humans are unaware of biotics. The Human begins questioning the blue light, at first the Human says simple things like "Eh," or "Just... what?" and even, "How?" There is also a fair amount said in her native tongue that is lost on Tevos.

The response from Tevos is simple, "Yes?" It is a basic question, asking the Human to expand on her confusion.

To which the Human simply replies, "The blue luminescence."

It is clear what the Human means, so Tevos tries to clarify as much as she can with the Prothean translator, but she knows it will be futile to try and explain the physics. The Humans response to this explanation puzzles Tevos a little, it was something to do with eggs, meaning Tevos can only assume it is a colloquialism. Colloquialisms are some of the hardest things to understand in different languages and cultures because to understand the message, you must first understand what the saying is referencing.

After 20 minutes or so, the trio moves on, and explore the rest of the sports halls where the Human gets to see some martial arts, racket sports, and feats of athletics. In the last sports hall they visit, the Human gets a whiff of some food being eaten a small distance away and comments that it smells particularly pleasant. With an idea in mind, the Councillor raises the idea of revisiting the food hall where the Human could try a few different types of food found in Asari culture, and the Human readily accepts.

When halfway through a small dish of food the Human compared to a Martian slowfry, the Humans asks a simple question, but an important one at that. "So, do we look like you, or do you look like us?" The language is not so clear, but her meaning and intent are apparent.

Tevos takes the diplomatic approach, "We look like each other."

The Human finishes her mouthful before gesturing for Tevos's hand. When her hand is in the Humans, the Human stretches it out before placing her palm to Tevos's palm. "Five fingers, knuckles, fingernails. It seems odd we evolve on different planets, yet, we are so similar."

Tevos takes a second to think, but she does not pull her hand away. Eventually, she says, "There are many species that look like us. 2 legs, 2 arms, 4 or more fingers, 2 eyes. There is a theory that we all have some sort of common ancestor, but what is exclusive to your race is your hundreds of strands and diversity." More than a few words need to be expanded and explained for the Human to understand her response.

Eventually, the Human asks, "None have hair?" She pulls her hand through her green hair as she asks this as if to exaggerate her own hair.

"None." Replies Tevos, "My own people are inquisitive as to how it feels, does it feel like the hair of the dogs we met? What colours can it be, and what is it used for?"

This seems to cause a chuckle in the green-haired Human, "Well, it's mostly for heat insulation, natural hair colours are red, brown and blonde. As to how it feels." The Human pulls its hair from behind its neck and to the front of its body, "How does it feel?" She then asks.

Tevos tentatively reaches a hand out to touch it, and after a couple of seconds, she has her answer, "Soft, considerably softer and smoother than the animal's hair."

The Human replies with a comment relating to conditioning hair, for whatever that means, before eventually asking about the other species. She asks all the questions a young child asks when finding out that they are not the lone species in the galaxy. Who is the oldest? Who is the most populated? How heavy is a Krogan? Do the other species have biotics? Can a Krogan wag their stumpy tail? All the usual questions.

Ultimately, the conversation comes to Tevos mentioning the Citadel, and when shown a picture on Captains omni-tool, the Human does not seem overly impressed, even less so when she finds out that the Asari did not make it themselves. Tevos can understand why the Human may not be too impressed, above Shepards own homeworld exists a ringworld far more extensive than the Citadel, and it is something they supposedly made. When asked how long it took to construct, Tevos is a little shocked when the Human says something related to 60 years, however, on second thoughts Tevos does not know how long a Prothean year is.

It is now that Tevos asks the simple question, why did the Humans build it? And once more with little more than a shrug, the Human says that to her species, Earth is their crown jewel, so they put a crown on it. Tevos understands that this answer is evasive, which means that there is more to it. Could Humans be suffering from overpopulation? Was it a station to showcase military and industrial might? Or, if they are anything like the Batarians, is it an Elysium for the rich and powerful? The Humans answer causes more questions than it answered. "Are their still nations?" Tevos asks to try and figure some things out.

"Da." The Human responds, before elaborating that she identifies as being from a remote part of Siberia where winter bites hard, and summer is just a myth.

Eventually, after talking about random aspects of each other's society for the better part of an hour and a half, Tevos receives a call from the diplomats, saying that the Human's are going to retire for the day. The Council diplomatic party offered their Human counterparts some accommodation on the Ascension, but they declined, preferring to return to their own vessel. In part, the diplomats did not expect the Humans to stay, they would want a place to go back and talk in assured privacy, and where they will find ensured and familiar comforts.

It was then proposed that if the diplomats don't want to stay, then why not ask the green-haired Human? This Shepard character so far seems to be more than willing to explore the new surroundings she finds herself in, so why not wine and dine her in the Ascensions Officers Mess? It is the Captain who asks her, and the offer is presented as one service personnel asking another into the Mess. While Tevos could ask the Human into the Mess being the Asari councillor, it would be frowned upon as she is not a Mess member paying into its funds.

This resulted in some discussion among the Humans, could they let a soldier mix so freely? A marine who is augmented with some of the finest war tech made? A soldier who was known a hundred years in the past as 'the butcher'? Eventually, it is settled that while unorthodox, and not planned for at all, it could provide greater insight into the Asari military mindset. With the simple order of "Don't make an ass of yourself, and don't be a dick." Blessing by the Human diplomats was given. If the diplomats know about the eezo poisoning, it is not clear to any of those representing the citadel species, in fact, the poisoning starts a small argument among people in the first contact teams, they argue as to if they should even tell the humans with pro's and con's presented on both sides of the argument. It is settled that unless the Humans mention it, the Citadel representatives will not bring it up. Right now, they do not need the Humans to know that they scanned them in detail, something which could be considered a serious breach of privacy.

As Tevos, the Captain and Shepard approach the Officers Mess onboard the Ascension, Tevos notes that the Human eyes have lost their glow, and when asked why, the Human makes a simple statement, saying "No Cameras in the Mess." It is a statement the Captain understands well, and agrees with. Cameras in the Mess often capture things that should stay in the Mess, and more than a few mess members have found themselves without a job because of what the camera's capture. The footage is never usually the problem, the issue is that often footage is spread outside the Mess and people who have zero involvement start to cry foul about things they do not understand.

When in the confines of the Ascensions Mess, the Captain offers both the Human and Tevos a tour of the small, but homely Mess, and both accept the tour, each having their own reasons for accepting. While Shepard is interested in what Silver and Property the Mess has, as this can tell her a lot about the story of the Asari Armed Forces, Tevos is more curious as to what history is hidden away in the ships officers accommodation.

Some things found in the Mess causes great confusion and disbelief in the Human, one particular item was a Tooth from a Threshermaw; and when explained what a Threshermaw is the Human does not believe it till shown a photo of the 'giant killer worm'. The tooth was secured by the ships commandos when they were attacked on a ground side training mission. The other items that held great interest to the Human involved the many paintings that decorate the Mess. Many of the artworks tell the tale battle, of either past ships that the Destiny Ascension took over from, or from the Destiny's own history. It is here that the Humans learn of the Rachni wars and the Krogan Rebellions, and if the stories are correct, then it occurs to Shepard that for the fleets and numbers involved, Humanity is a very small fish swimming in a very big pond. The final item which captures Shepard's interest is a partially decommissioned shotgun of a Krogan warlord during the rebellions, and a comment is made that a weapon of such a high calibre must be used for little more than intimidation. The Human soldier shows great interest in learning that the Krogan actively use such high calibre weapons to this day.

The rest of the Mess is what Shepard would call small and cosy, the dining hall while formal looking, is far more relaxed looking than a Human Mess, and the living rooms are comfortable looking, and one may actually believe it is designed for living in.

Getting to her room for the night the Human finds a few oddities, the first being that apparently Asari do not believe in pillows, and the second is that when Humans use red and blue to signify hot and cold, Asari use triangles and circles. There are many other little things the Human notices, but the main thing is that there is a bed along with a hot and cold tap.

When the Human is distracted exploring her room for the evening, Tevos is pulled aside by an aid which is quick to show her some scans they made of the humans in discrete. Each and every one of the Humans has traces of Eezo exposure, with the Human marine being the worst, it has active eezo absorbed in the metal grafted to its skeleton. This news wouldn't usually concern the Councillor, eezo can be found in most species; however, Humanity's blatant lack of biotic understanding and the deficit of eezo in their home system tells her that they do not know of Eezo. Tevos also knows that without an eezo drive creating an 'eezo bubble', a vessel travelling through a Relay would be exposed to extreme levels of Eezo radiation, to the point that no ship with life onboard would dare travel through a relay without an eezo drive for protection. Truthfully, it is surprising that the Humans are not showing symptoms of eezo poisoning. With Tevos's blessing, the medical corps on the Ascension begins devising plans on how to treat an unknown species from an unknown world with eezo poisoning. The medics are aided by the numerous scans taken while the Humans have been on board the Destiny, and the fact most of the medics have experience working with a mix of species.

/.../

**UNSC Praetorian**

The Praetorian's Captain looks at the monitor in front of him with a small frown, the fleet in front of him, while of great concern, they are also 'knowns' in that he knows who they report to, or who to blame when they do something stupid. What he does not like is the three Stealth Vessels that are watching in, the first Stealth Vessel the Captain understands to belong to the fleet hovering in nearby orbit, the other two, however, are of greater concern. The second ship is of a differing design to the known aliens, the ship is utterly dark in space and has an almost none-organic design to it, almost as if it was a design by an AI within the R&D departments in Sol. It is a curious thought that the Captain has pitched to his ships AI, but its analysis was that while his thoughts were interesting, it could not be proven. While this unknown vessel is an obvious Stealth Vessel, it does not really give the Captain the chills, it is small, and Ultron's sensors have failed to pick up any real weapon systems on it. Most likely, the Captain ponders, is that the thing will run if it feels threatened - its small size will in all likelihood allow it to easily outrun any Alliance vessel.

The third vessel is the real problem child, and it gives the Captain the chills, the cuttlefish looking vessel that has what appears to be five glowing 'eyes' was only spotted by Ultron because the President allowed a prototype gravity sensor to be deployed. The gravity sensor works by causing subtle ripple waves in gravity to spread through space and then observing how the waves react. When the device detected something on its scope, optical sensors were turned to its location, and when only a vague outline of something could be seen, one of Ultron's platforms was sent to have a peek. Since detection, the Cuttlefish ship has since done nothing. It has not changed its location or reacted to any fleet movements - which tells the Captain it is confident it is undetectable. With confidence, the Captain knows that arrogance often follows.

Hearing some footsteps approach the Captain looks up and notices his second in command is approaching, also known to the men on board as the 2IC. The 2IC only salutes the Captain once a day, usually in the morning, otherwise, he would be forever be saluting due to how often the two interact. When the 2IC is a few feet away he opens his mouth to say, "I think the radiation theory holds water." The Captain gives a single look that says carry on. "So, I've compiled a list of people who are sick, and their location on board when travelling through the alien device and I think I've found something; have a butchers at this." The 2IC places a sheet of printed paper in front of the Captain. On the sheet of paper, the 2IC has marked an outline of the Hull and the inner floor plan, then noted where all the sick were during transit through the alien device, "Notice anything?"

The first few floors have very few casualties to this radiation sickness, as do the last ten floors. After some reflection and thought the Captain says, "Floors 1-6 all have the same truth to them, they are all under thick armour that is designed to take direct shots. The midsection can only say it has enough armour to deflect shrapnel, and engineering has thick radiation shields. I guess the question now is what radiation have we been exposed to?"

"We only have wild guesses at the moment." The 2IC admits.

/.../

**Ringworld 01**

A young college student collapses onto his bed after returning from a simple shopping trip, feeling grateful that he returned unharmed. Since news of the aliens, life has turned upside down for himself and most others. In the last 24 hours, the mood has drastically changed, instead of being hesitant and wary, people are now angry, and their frustrations are being felt. Some are not happy because the government has sat on its haunches, and neglected its military, others are unhappy because some view the latest laws aimed at allowing a greater defence of Sol as just an excuse to limit freedoms. Confusingly, others oppose the vast military build-up, and others aren't happy simply because very little makes them happy. Either way, there seems to be more unhappy than happy, and the often violent protests are causing serious problems that the authorities are struggling to control. To the humour of the college student, he must laugh that some of the rioters think the aliens are made up, all in order for the government to elect stronger control measures on the public and re-enact rules similar to conscription. He laughs because he saw them, in the flesh, and he laughs because as mad as it seems, he also directed his telescope to their fleet when it was in orbit, and he believes that even with conscription, Humanity is doomed. Their fleet looked graceful in space as if they were native to the lack of atmosphere and travelling between stars; whereas human fleets look ugly and ready for a bruiser, these fleets look like the product of an artist. The rioters can riot as much as they want, but the aliens will win.

/.../

Cheers all!


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey all, sorry this one has taken longer to get out than usual, I've been away off doing things in the wilderness for longer than I initially expected. Cheers for sticking around. **

**RR**

**KitBeast: Thanks for the constructive criticism. I'll go back and have a look at it and see what can be done. **

**Darkcrush: Now you have me wanting to write that in somewhere. Damit. **

**IHateGenericCereal: I've had to dial back how much I wanted to go into the wider galaxy for this chapter. The wider galaxy bit was taking me a while to write and I just wasn't 'feeling it' and I know it is long overdue for an update. I'll try to get back to it soon. **

**GlrassHopper: The Reapers are a mysterious bunch. **

**12agnar0kian: Here you go!**

**Citadel**

Sparatus finishes his drink of hiven stomach contents and places the empty mug on the table in front of him before responding to Valern, "Yes, a new vessel. It has been a concern of my people for a very long time now, and with the latest developments, we have at last had the justification required to get the funding needed. Before Tevos returns, we will approach the Council with our plans."

"Smart," The Salarian Councillor initially replies, "Tevos will be a big opponent, enough so that she will slow down its blessing by a considerable period of time." Valern takes a sip of his own drink, a type of muddy water with some herbs thrown in for flavour, before blinking his large eyes twice, restoring moisture into them that the clinically dry Citadel air saps away. With some mirth, the Salarian then asks Sparatus, "But I must inquire, do these newcomers scare you enough that you are willing to build a costly.."

"Surely, you know better?" Sparatus fires back before the Salarain can finish, already knowing what Valern was going to imply, "The Primarchs have wanted a stick to rival the Asari's for a long while now."

"Are you sure?" Tests Valern, the Salarian knows that he can get an easy rise from his Turian counterpart regarding this issue; he knows the Councillor is a big fan of big ships and has been jealous of the Destiny Ascension for as long as he can remember. With a dreamy voice, Valern continues to say, "Relay metal, plasma weaponry, stealth vessels..."

"All gimmicks." Sparatus shoots back with a waft of his clawed hand. "There is a creature on my homeworld that we can hunt. This creature can toss a Turian 20 meters through the air without a second thought..."

"Yes," The Salarian now sounds slightly bored, as if he has heard the story numerous times before, "I know of the creature, and I know you are probably about to say something about skill over technology." Contrary to what many may think, Turians similar to the Salarians and Volus actually require technology to be the apex land predator of their homeworld.

"Then less of my people," Sparatus goes on to say, "What of your own. Your reccy vessel is yet to be accounted for; by now, its capacitors are surely requiring discharge, and I bet the heat sink would have cooked the crew alive by now." The Citadel has not yet received news of the Salarian vessels return.

The Salarain Councillor blinks his large eyes twice before responding, "The Salarian government refuse to speculate on the Ranitomeya or its fate." The fact the Ranitomeya is missing has been leaked to the Salarian population, and from what Sparatus can understand, there is great concern among the Salarian community.

Just like Valern, Sparatus also knows how to get a rise out of his fellow councillors, "Then let me embark on a thinking exercise. What if it has been attacked or captured?"

Valern gives a Salarian smirk before powering up his omni-tool. "I said the Salarian Government. I, on the other hand, can speculate all I want. We know that the ship got into trouble, but that is all we know."

"Now how would you know that?"

"Salarian ships are fitted with a basic QEC device. The device can't send data, we lack that capability, but it does send through enough random information that if it stops transmitting, we know something has happened. Shortly after the Humans requested the Fleet Commander to leave their system, the Ranitomeya stopped transmitting this random information. Now, the captain of the ship could have turned off the transmission manually, so the ship may very well be intact, but unequivocally something has happened to the ship." Sparatus wonders if the Salarian only revealed this information as the Turians are close to getting something similar themselves - no doubt the sneaky Salarians know this.

"How soon after the fleet in the Human system left did the Ranitomeya go silent?"

"A third of a day."

"Then it is my bet," Sparatus starts to say aloud, "The Humans have known it has been there the entire time. Now, that must be most concerning for you and your military doctrine." Salarian military doctrine is to win a war before the war starts, and they often enable this through the use of stealth ships; if the Humans can find their stealth ships with ease, then their doctrine is under threat.

"The thought has passed my mind," Valern eventually admits after a moment of silence. "But speculation will get us nowhere. What will be of use is discussing the Batarians."

"Ah, yes. The four eyes." Sparatus speaks as if he is referring to people who are a constant source of irritation - which they are. "My military advisors have reported little progress in the talks." In the last week, talks have started between the Council and the Batarian government; the Turians want permission to patrol the Human border, but the Batarians understandably are not keen to allow Turian fleets access to their space. Turian fleets famously hunt pirates ruthlessly and considering a vast majority of traffic in Batarian space could be regarded as pirates, a Turian fleet in Batarian space would cause all sorts of headaches.

Valern responds without delay, "As have my own. We have many arms we can twist, it is just the matter of twisting the right arm to have the desired outcome. Have you had any thought on the Asari input?"

Sparatus flares his mandibles downwards, a sign to show that, yes, he has thought about it. "Etiam." He initially replies, talking in his native tongue. "They are split. Half want future space bridges set up, allowing free access to Human space; others want to respect Batarian boundaries. What will be decided in the Asari high council meetings is anyone's guess at the moment. It would be most useful for Tevos to return to make some executive decisions for them." While the Asari have stepped up a temporary replacement, that replacement is a representative with severely limited power - they are merely to ensure that Asari thoughts are heard and considered. The fact that the Asari representative is not in this meeting alone tells of how little power or influence they have.

"If we leave it to the High Council will be waiting a while before any of us know the probable outcome," Valern remarks, knowing full well that Asari politics is a slow-moving machine. "We need for her return, and we can engage the Batarian diplomatic team as one combined entity. At the moment, without her team's full support, it feels like we are arguing with just the right side of our cortex." No one will argue against the Asari having the best diplomats; they can spend hundreds of years learning the rules and blindly pull out regulations most don't even know exist. Asari often go for the strategy of blinding with their knowledge of policy, and unfortunately for the none Asari, this can tangle teams up for weeks if not months to try and counter.

"We also need to ensure that the Batarians agree to our patrols." Sparatus adds, "The Batarian economy is taking some drastic hits. If they think they can get some cheap wins from raiding Human assets or space, then they will." The concern here is not for the Humans themselves, but rather for the trade and relations with the Human government. "But what if we fail to secure the patrol routes?"

"Not good I am afraid," Valern notes, "If our analysis on our newcomers is correct, Humans prefer stealth warfare, much like ourselves. We have seen few actual military assets, but Stealth Vessels keep making an appearance. Batarians, on the other hand, like yourselves, enjoy being seen; our own analysis on the Batarians tell us time and time again, they do not mix well with stealth tactics. Often because they use attrition strategies, they resort to tactics which say, if the enemy can't be seen, then they aren't there." It is for this reason Batarians often raid Salarian worlds, only to receive heavy casualties from installations that are hidden from sight.

"So, what do we do?" Sparatus sighs.

/.../

**Citadel Bar. **

General Septimus Oraka pushes his glass forward and towards the Asari behind the bar before turning 90 degrees in his chair to watch the holographic news device that is playing away in the top corner of the bar. At the moment, the news anchor is once more going into details about the Humans, which seems to be a none stop occurrence these days, and Septimus is tired of it all. "Do you know how many Turians died yesterday?" He asks the unamused looking Asari behind the counter. "In the line of service?"

The Asari does not react much as she pours a new drink into his glass; she is well used to the disgraced Generals rants. "Half a small battalion."

"114," Septimus says, almost spitting the number out, "114 of my people died hunting down pyjaks, and all these news anchors care about are these multi-coloured soft skins." 'Soft skins' is a common insult for non-Turians.

The bartender knows Septimus well, the disgraced General frequents her bar quite a lot, and he tips well, so she often goes out of her way to make him feel a little more welcome, even if that means reading into Turian news and ignoring his phyletic jabs. "Let me guess. Raid of Lupanar? Sounded like a nasty skirmish."

Septimus quickly responds to the Asari. "The raid of Lupanar! 1 Frigate destroyed, numerous ground side installations raided, and families slaughtered. I'm telling you, we should send a fleet and make 'em remember it. Glass in return I say."

"Oh yeah?" The Asari responds as she goes back to cleaning glasses. "So we shouldn't keep the fleets ready for these soft skins?" The Asari has learned to be a good devil's advocate with her many years.

"Bah," The old Turian responds with a waft of his clawed hand, "For what? How much do you honestly think the Council is telling you is true? That containment fleet will hold the line." The Turian takes to sipping his drink before going off on another rant, "I know how they think, I know."

It humours the Asari bartender that this is not the first time she has had this conversation with the man, in fact, she has had it numerous times, just the drunken General gets himself into such a state he forgets. After a while the General has another outburst. "Look at that! More news on the Humans. Protests at the fleet they sent. Pathetic."

"That fleet is costing us a great deal." The Asari replies, once more being a devil's advocate, "Getting us into debt with the Batarian government. Not a place we want to be."

"And what do you or these protestors know of containment?" Asks the General. "If you would rather be in debt to the Batarians than the Rachni you need to let us do our job."

"Not as simple as that." The Asari tuts. "And more than most. You forget my species are long-lived in your drunken stupor."

"Bah," The General exasperates as he pushes his glass once more towards the Asari, "Have you seen..."

"How your government is using the Humans to push through regulations?" Asks the bar keep taking a not so random stab into the dark, "Yes. I know your government quietly renewed the License act." The licensing act requires Turians to be given a license to have a child in Turian space, and the licensing authorities often forget about those in opposition parties. "And I know the Salarians are angry that their own government has forced through an act allowing only certain STEM fields to be funded by their education authority." In truth, the Humans have been a good distraction for many, allowing some shady business and deals to go on as eyes and ears are pointed elsewhere, but the Humans have also caused many other problems.

For the Turians, it is proving costly, people of significance are forecasting an increase in the military budget, which is causing certain stocks and shares to collapse, and others to panic buy in certain sectors. This then causes shockwave effects in the other species as they attempt to counter this increase in spending or limit the damage caused from the panic buying of stocks. Then the fact the Humans have been discovered in Batarian space has caused other unintended effects. People can see the strain between the Batarian and Citadel governments, causing them to judge who will come out on top and as a result, people are abandoning Batarian businesses, which is causing certain sectors to collapse as the market comes unstable and unpredictable. Certain resources the Batarians mine have gone through the roof in cost as a result, and the cheap labour Batarian space provides is now too unstable, causing businesses to pull out for more stable endeavours elsewhere. This then hits supply and demand of certain products, which once more pushes prices through the roof.

The more the galaxy learns of the Humans, it occurs to the Asari bar tender, the more it costs the galaxy.

/.../

**Destiny Ascension**

Shepard approaches her phone that is resting on her bed and accepts the incoming call, putting it onto loudspeaker. "Commander Shepard Speaking," She says before she goes back to drying her hair, having just gotten out of a shower. Unsurprisingly, it turns out the Asari also like a good high-pressure shower, although Shepard would have preferred it to be a little hotter than it was.

"Commander Shepard," A gruff voice speaks in return, "Just so that you are aware, there are a few of us around the table. You have myself, Captain Melchett of the Praetorian, Doctor Michel, chief MO of the Praetorian, and Anita Goyle, head of the diplomatic team."

"So this ain't a friendly chat." Shepard assumes out loud, "Okay, out with it; what has gone wrong?" One would not usually be so candid with a captain of a ship, but most are not augments who have been through some of Humanities worst conflicts.

Anita Goyle responds to Shepard, "You still being on that alien ship. Issues outside of our control have arisen, which makes your current location troublesome."

Shepard rolls her eyes, "Ambassador, just give it to me straight. I am going to have assume because the MO is in attendance this is medically related."

"Correct." This time its a third unknown voice so Shepard assumes it is the MO, or the Medical Officer speaking. "Most of the Praetorian has been exposed to some type of radiation, with many receiving a lethal dose."

"Alright," Shepard replies, knowing that there are many treatments for radiation exposure, "How long do I have before its terminal?" Shepard knows that there are many treatments for radiation sickness, providing the treatment is applied in time, so she is not too worried.

"We don't know," The MO responds, "With you being a Mark 2 Augment, not much is known or willing to be released. If your AI would provide, then I could make an estimated guess." Most forget Augments are paired with an AI.

Shepard raises a brow before responding, "Should have it now." As the MO looks over the AI's data, the AI does its own quick analysis and realises that Shepard has a great amount of cell damage. It could be queried as to why the AI has not picked it up yet, but the AI is not a medical bot, it is a combat aid, it does not, nor was it commissioned to run a highly specific and detailed health report every two minutes. If Shepard entered a known radiation hotspot then yes, a report would be compiled, but otherwise, the AI would not waste its time running such a report.

As the MO reads over the data sent, Anita Goyle begins to interrogate Shepard over everything she has seen and witnessed on the Ascension, from the smallest of details to her thoughts on the design of the overall ship. As Anita questions her, Shepard with a now mostly damp set of locks looks at a mirror provided in her room and decides to change her hair colour from green to blue. It will take the nano-particles in her hair a few moments to change their shade but nothing too long. With her hair changing colour, Shepard looks at the evening attire that the Asari have provided her, and for Shepard, it is classy by her standards. To get her sizes, the Asari stood her in front of an orange holographic Asari and the VI instantly stated her sizes before a machine whirred to life and quickly printed her a black dress. The shoes for the evening were thankfully flat-soled, and fortunately, they look rather comfortable.

After a while, Anita finishes her interrogation and Shepard is told by the MO that she has 18 hours and no longer before she must return to the Praetorian for medical treatment.

An hour later, Shepard finds herself sat in a regal looking room, the centrepiece of the room is a large wooden table, the wood is coarse, and littered with holes, which makes it feel out of place in the otherwise high calibre room. On top of the table, there are numerous silver looking vessels that contain Asari wines or water, and every so far around the table a set of fancy looking plates, glasses and eating utensils have been placed. Around the walls of the room, there are multiple paintings, most of them appear to be oil-based and of considerable age, and each shows what could be the same Asari with only small differences between them. Out of curiosity, Shepard asked about the table and paintings; she is told that the table is from a defeated pirate that had gained infamy raiding Asari worlds, and the paintings are of various Asari officers who have some significance to the Destiny Ascension. Strangely Shepard is unsure if this comforts her because Human militaries do something similar with their defeated foe's and famous corp personnel.

At the table sits some of the most senior officers from the Asari's ship, a few from the diplomatic team, and Shepard herself. At the centre of the table sits the most senior officer, that being the ship's captain, then moving outwards are the other officers, with the highest of ranks being closest to the middle. The only exceptions to this is Shepard, who is sat opposite the captain of the ship, and besides Shepard are a few others from the day's activities. While the act of sitting opposite the captain may seem small, if this were a Human mess, it would be seen as a show of respect to be sat opposite the captain. It does not take long from taking a seat at the table for the conversation to move to Shepard. At first, it is small talk, asking about the room she was provided, why her hair is now a completely different colour - many of the Asari were overly curious about this, or how the current room compares to a mess among Human messes.

Eventually, the conversation moves onto more significant subject matters. "Did you take part in the raid on the Salarian vessel? Or do you know anything about it?"

Shepard takes a second to translate what was said before giving her response, "No. My team not sent in." Realising that she has been asked a few military questions over the day now that have forced her to give no answer or play dumb, Shepard tries to ask her own, "Why did they commit voyna... - war?" This question makes the table turn to utter silence with everyone knowing their response will have to be very carefully constructed, considering the accusation. After a second or two of silence the Human goes on, "Human space, we don't want your stealth vessel."

"And I'm sure the Salarian's have learned their lesson," Irissa is quick in her response, "But I have watched the interviews we have had with the returned Salarians. They all praised your people's efficiency onboard."

Shepard squints her eyes a little as she recognises the attempts to manoeuvre the conversation onto another topic. Not wanting to press with her early topic, she instead jumps onto the new subject, "They messy, but effective." Shepard knows the commanding officer of the team that was sent in, after all the military world is a small one.

After some back and forth, with the Asari asking why the Human considers the other team messy, the conversation changes again, "So, what is your opinion on AI?" A younger Asari asks Shepard, "Yes or no?"

Once translated to Prothean, Shepard squints her eyes a little and takes a moment before slowly responding, "AI could be useful. You have?"

"No." Tevos replies for the younger Asari, "We have strong citadel laws against the production of AI." Tevos was invited to the evening meal considering her status.

"Bad experience?" Shepard asks "Or fearful of what if."

Tevos allows a small unfortunate blink, "It is a sad story. A species created them, and now the AI has almost driven the species to extinction."

"Ah," Shepard responds as if seeing something that she recognises, "Bad code."

"You don't have them, do you?"

Shepard once more takes a moment to respond, which tells Tevos that she is weighing her answer carefully, which probably means that they do. "Would it matter?" Tevos makes a mental note to have the ambassadors and diplomats to quiz their human counterparts on this.

"It would certainly complicate things." Tevos quickly supplies. "It would be better for all if you didn't."

The Human looks a little confused, "It answers simple questions." Shepard quickly proceeds to get her mobile out that she has been using to scan her food, and power it up, before asking in Prothean, "Glados, what is weather on mud, Haskiv?" The device gives a simple answer back, telling Shepard the temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and chances of snow. "It simple."

"Can this thing think for itself?" Another Asari asks.

Shepard shakes her head, "Not as far as I'm aware."

This causes a small chuckle from Tevos as she realises what has happened, "We call this a Virtual Intelligence," Tevos supplies, "It can only answer programmed questions. These are allowed and actively encouraged."

"Yes, yes." Shepard replies with a nod of her head, "This slow." As if to emphasise Shepard taps her phone off the table in a roughly handled manner.

When it is explained to the rest of the room that Shepard was getting confused with a Virtual Intelligence, it causes a small amount of relieving humour. "I think you had us all worried there for a second," Tevos tells her.

It is another ten or so minutes before another question is asked of the Human which causes some intrigue and the dining table to quieten down. The Human's evening dress has revealed a few nasty scars that run up her arms. In the dim light of the room, a few of these scars have a faint red glow to them, and if you catch the Humans eyes in the right light, there is also a faint red glow from her eyes. Shepard knows that they have probably scanned her by now, and will know of some of her secrets, so she comes out with some of the truth, "Cybernetic enhancements."

This causes a whole other type of questioning, what do the cybernetic enhancements allow? The simple answer which is easy to believe is that they allow for additional strength and durability on the battlefield, and anyone with a set of eyes would most likely be able to figure that out from a simple scan of her body. When asked how much stronger, it is figured out that the Human could probably lift a Krogan, but unless they go to the gym, the claimed feat of strength is not tested. On a tit for tat question, Shepard finds out that Asari also have cybernetic enhancements, but while hers are for strength, the Asari cybernetics are for their biotics. For Tevos, it raises yet another issue that must be addressed in the future, because Citadel law prohibits certain types of enhancements through cybernetic augmentation.

Near the end of the meal, Shepard is asked what she wants from the whole first contact situation, which Shepard jokes that as long as there is no invasions, she will be happy. While this may seem rather innocent, it is slightly more alarming for Tevos, and the fact the Human has joked about it, can tell her a lot more than the Human may realise. In addition, it could be interpreted in a few different ways, does the Human not want the Citadel to invade, or does she not want the Humans to invade? It's most likely the former, but the latter is not to be taken off the table. If it is the former, then it tells her that in actuality, the fear of a citadel invasion may be very real for not only the marine, but many other Humans. It may mean that at the moment, future trade and relations is not at the top of Human minds, but rather survival, which may mean Humans could be unpredictable if they feel threatened. If Tevos wanted to dig into, however, she knows that she could translate it to mean many different things, but it is still something worth letting the first contact teams know about and let them come to their own conclusions.

Eventually at the end of the night, the Human retires mostly sobre, and leaving a good impression to the rest of the Asari officers. This soldier does not seem to be some sort of war-crazed Krogan, or a Batarian that lacks respect, but more like a potential future ally in the making.

/.../

**Cheers all. **


End file.
